F 474 






The 

Building 

of 

St. Louis 



St. Louis; 




Glass_JEAl_a__ 
Book lS_^Sa4- 



THE BUILDING 
OF ST. LOUIS 



FROM MANY POINTS OF VIEW 
BY NOTABLE PERSONS 



Compilation and Comment 
by 

WALTER B. STEVENS 



Published by the 

LESAN-GOULD COMPANY 

St. Louis, 1908 






LIBrtARX ut ftOflGi^ESS 
I HO OODies rt<^eivc4t 

AUG i )yob 

CLASM W(c. Nu 



Copyright 190S 

BY 

LESAN-GOULD COMPANY 

SAINT LOUIS 



INTRODUCTORY 



t-» N a December day of 1763, Pierre Laclede rode 
H to the summit of a gentle hill and looked east- 
. JBk ward through the tree tops below to the Missis- 
sippi. He turned to Auguste Chouteau, who 
was beside him, and said: "He was delighted with the 
situation. He did not hesitate a moment to form there the 
establishment which he proposed. Besides the beauty of 
the site, he found there all the advantages that one could 
desire to found a settlement which might become consid- 
erable hereafter." 

The hill from which the founder viewed the site of St. 
Louis was where the court-house stands today. It became 
to two generations a landmark. In the town talk of that 
early period it was referred to as "The Hill." Auguste 
Chouteau was a boy of thirteen years and four months. 
He was wise for his age. He remembered to write in his 
journal, with firm, careful hand, a narrative of this finding 
of the site for the settlement. 

Laclede and the stepson had left the flotilla and the rest 
of their party in winter quarters at Fort Chartres, forty 
miles down the river. They had crossed to the Missouri 
side and had explored thoroughly the country to the bluffs 
overlooking the Missouri river near its mouth. They had 
seen what Charlevoix had observed on his voyage forty 
years before and had described : 

"I believe this is the finest confluence in the world. The 
two rivers are much of the same breadth, each about 
half a league, but the Missouri is by far the most rapid, 
and seems to enter the Mississippi like a conqueror, through 
Avhich it carries its white waves to the opposite shore with- 
out mixing them. Afterward it gives its color to the Mis- 
sissippi, which it never loses again, but carries quite down 
to the sea." 

Laclede and Chouteau rode southward, leaving the 
precipitous cliffs of limestone from which they had viewed 
this union of the Missouri and Mississippi. Their route 
was over the rolling prairies, then almost devoid of forest 
growth. The question of the location of the settlement 



was still unanswered. They ascended the hill from the 
west. Laclede announced the decision. From the eleva- 
tion, after he had looked long and with increasing satis- 
faction, Laclede went down among the trees which cov- 
ered the lower plateau. He made his way slowly to the 
edge of the limestone bluff thirty feet high, at the base 
of which was a strip of sand and then the Mississippi. 

"After having examined all thoroughly," wrote Auguste 
Chouteau, in the journal, "he fixed upon the place where 
he wished to form his settlement, marked with his own 
hands some trees and said, 'you will come here as soon 
as navigation opens and will cause this place to be cleared 
in order to form our settlement after the plan I shall give 
you.' " 

Where Laclede marked the trees in December, 1763, 
Auguste Chouteau cleared the ground and began to build 
the cabins in February following. On that spot stood the 
government house and the headquarters of the fur company 
while St. Louis was growing into permanence. There, on 
Main street between Walnut and Market streets, was for 
many years the Merchants Exchange. In that immediate 
vicinity the commerce of St. Louis focused for a century. 

Laclede and his youthful confidant went back by the 
shortest route to Fort Chartres. No further search was 
suggested. Preparations to move were to be made with- 
out delay. Laclede announced the results of the explora- 
tion. "He said, with enthusiasm," Auguste Chouteau re- 
corded, "to M. de Neyon and to his officers, that he had 
found a situation where he was going to form a settlement 
which might become, hereafter, one of the finest cities of 
America — so many advantages were embraced in this site, 
by its locality and its central position for forming settle- 
ments." 

So reads the journal, written with painstaking accuracy, 
as the frequent erasures and interlineations bear witness. 

Within five years after Laclede marked the trees, a 
fur trade of $80,000 a year was the basis of the settlement's 
prosperity. Three years after the first steamboat crept up 
the Mississippi to the foot of Walnut street, in the twen- 
ties, the trade of the city had reached $2,500,000 annually. 
When the rush to California came, in the forties, St. Louis 
again bounded forward in commercial and industrial de- 
velopment. The year 1907 made a new record. The 
trade of the city had reached a billion dollars. 



As the city passed the milestones from 1764 to 1907, 
many observers of the building of St. Louis made record 
of their impressions in writing or in speech. They have 
described. They have commented. They have prophe- 
sied. 



St. Louis in Print 
for the First Time 



St. Louis got into print for the first time in 1770. That 
year Captain Philip Pitman published in London a book 
on his observations along the Mississippi. He described 
St. Louis as he saw the settlement in 1767, when it was 
just three years old. 

Pitman was an officer in the engineering corps of the 
British army. He was detailed by General Gage to visit 
the Mississippi Valley. The year before, 1765, Sterling 
and the Highlanders had reached Fort Chartres by way 
of the Alleghany mountains and the Ohio river. Sterling 
died a few months after he occupied Fort Chartres. The 
British government wanted an expert report on the terri- 
tory just acquired from France on the east side of the Mis- 
sissippi. Pitman was selected by Gage to make it. Gage 
was in command of the military forces of Great Britain 
in America. The middle of the next decade this same 
General Gage precipitated the American Revolution by 
sending the redcoats out of Boston to seize arms at Con- 
cord, bringing on the Battle of Lexington. 

Pitman came out to the Mississippi Valley, "the country 
of the Illinois," it was then called, in 1766. He traveled 
about several months. He sent in his report to General 
Gage in 1767. Three years later he gave to the public 
a narrative of his observations and impressions. He 
noted the migration of the French settlers on the east side 
to St. Louis, but he does not give to Laclede's settlement the 
name the founder chose for it. 

By "Paincourt" Pitman designates St. Louis. In one 
place he uses the proper name and that is where he inci- 
dentally explains how the settlement came by its nickname. 
In his description of Ste. Genevieve the army engineer 
says: 

"The village of St. Louis is supplied with flour and 
other provisions from hence." 

Laclede's settlement had grown faster than the farming 
in the common fields and the milling of the Taillons. It 
was being fed from the older and larger settlem.ent of 
Ste. Genevieve. There was reason for "Pain Court" (Short 
Loaf). 



St. Louis, as Pitman found it in the early months of 
1767, is described in these words: 

"This village is one league and a half above Kaoquias, 
on the west side of the Mississippi, being the present head- 
quarters of the French in these parts. It was first estab- 
lished in the year 1764 by a company of merchants, to 
whom Mons. D'Abbadie had given an exclusive grant for 
the commerce with the Indian nations on the River Mis- 
soury; and for the security and encouragement of this set- 
tlement the staff of French officers and the commissary 
were ordered to remove here, upon the rendering Fort 
Chartres to the English; and great encouragement was 
given to the inhabitants to remove with them, most of whom 
did. The company has built a large house and stores here, 
and there are about forty-five houses and as many families. 
No fort or barracks are yet built. The French garrison 
consists of a captain-commandant, two lieutenants, a fort 
major, one sergeant, one corporal and twenty men." 



Early Habits of Dress 



Monette, in his history of the Valley of the Mississippi, 
tells of the habit of dress which prevailed in St. Louis 
in colonial days. The leggings were of coarse linen in 
summer and of deerskin in winter. The principal garment 
in cold weather for the men was 

"Generally a coarse blanket capote drawn over the 
shirt and long vest. The capote served the double pur- 
pose of cloak and hat ; for the hood, attached to the collar 
behind, hung upon the back and shoulders as a cape, and, 
when desired, it served to cover the whole head from in- 
tense cold. Most commonly in summer, and especially 
among the boatmen, voyageurs and coureurs des bois, the 
head was enveloped in a blue handkerchief, turban-like, 
as a protection from solar heat and noxious insects. The 
same material of lighter quality and fancy colors, wreathed 
with bright-colored ribbons, and sometimes flowers, formed 
the fancy headdress of the females on festive occasions; 
at other times they also used the handkerchief in the more 
patriarchal style. The dress of the matrons was simple and 
plain; the old-fashioned short jacket and petticoat, varied 
to suit the diversities of taste, was the most common over- 
dress of the women. The feet in winter were protected 
by Indian moccasins, or the more unwieldy clog-shoe, but 
in summer, and in dry weather the foot was left uncovered 
and free, except on festive occasions and holidays, when it 
was adorned with the light moccasin, gorgeously orna- 
mented with brilliants of porcupine quills, shells, beads 
or lace, ingeniously wrought over the front instead of 
buckles, and on the side flaps." 



St. Lovusans as The Amer- 
ican Captain Saw Them 



"The American captain" Amos Stoddard was called. 
He came out to St. Louis to raise the American flag in 
1804. He remained here some time as the representative 
of the United States government. A New Englander, he 
studied the people of St. Louis and wrote his "Notes." In 
the opinion of the American captain the people of St. Louis 
were temperate. 

"They mostly limit their desires to vegetables, soups and 
coffee. They are great smokers of tobacco, and no doubt 
this gives a yellow tinge to their skins. Ardent spirits are 
seldom used except by the most laborious classes of society. 
They even dislike white wines because they possess too 
much spirit. Clarets and other light red wines are com- 
mon among them ; and those who can afford it are not 
sparing of this beverage. Great economy is displayed in 
their family meals. This is not the effect of a parsimonious 
disposition, nor always of the want of adequate means. 
It results from a conviction of what their constitutions re- 
quire. They readily sacrifice what may be termed luxury 
for the preservation of health, and it is seldom they con- 
tract diseases from intemperate excesses. Naturally volatile 
in their dispositions they sometimes precipitate themselves 
from one extreme to another. Hence it is that in making 
entertainment for their friends, especially for strangers of 
distinction, they study to render them sumptuous. Their 
tables are covered with a great variety of dishes; almost 
every sort of food, dressed in all manner of ways, is ex- 
hibited in profusion. The master of the house, out of re- 
spect for his guests, frequently waits on them himself. On 
such occasions no trouble or expense is spared in procuring 
the best wines and other liquors the country affords. Their 
desserts are no less plentiful and there is no want of deli- 
cacy in their quality or variety. Many of these entertain- 
ments cost from $250 to $400." 

The American captain did not find St. Louis the "land 
of steady habits" he had known in his youth. He did, 
however, discover in the habitants a distinctive character 
which in his judgment was admirable. 



"Perhaps the levities displayed and the amusements 
pursued on Sunday may be considered by some to border on 
licentiousness. They attend mass in the morning with 
great devotion, but after the exercises of the church are 
over they usually collect in parties and pass away their 
time in social and merry intercourse. They play at bil- 
liards and other games, and to balls and assemblies the 
Sundays are particularly devoted. To those educated in 
regular and pious protestant habits such parties and amuse- 
ments appear unseasonable, strange and odious, if not 
prophetic of some signal curse on the workers of iniquity. 
It must, however, be confessed that the French people, in 
these days, avoid all intemperate and immoral excesses, 
and conduct themselves with apparent decorum. They 
are of opinion that there is true and undefiled religion in 
their amusements, much more, indeed, than they can see in 
certain night conferences and obscure meetings in various 
parts among the tombs. When questioned relative to their 
gaiety on Sundays, they will answer that men were made 
for happiness, and that the more they are able to enjoy 
themselves the more acceptable they are to their creator. 
They are of opinion that a sullen countenance, attention 
to gloomy subjects, a set form of speech, and a stiff be- 
havior are more indicative of hypocrisy than of religion ; 
and they say they have often remarked that those who 
practised these singularities on Sunday will most assuredly 
cheat and defraud their neighbors during the remainder 
of the week. Such are the religious sentiments of a people 
void of superstition ; of a people prone to hospitality, ur- 
banity of manners and innocent recreation, and who pre- 
sent their daily orisons at the throne of Grace with as much 
confidence of success as the most devout Puritan in Chris- 
tendom." 



10 



Beauty , Modesty and M an- 
ners of St. Louis Women 



Christian Schultz wrote "Travels on an Inland Voyage, 
Performed in the Years 1807 and 1808, Including a Tour 
of Nearly 6,000 Miles." He explained in the preface to his 
two volumes that he was prompted to this journey of dis- 
covery by alleged "Travels in America, by Thomas Ash, 
Esq., England." Schultz found that book had "mistakes, 
misrepresentations and fictions on almost every page." 
When he had concluded his own travels he expressed the 
opinion that Thomas Ash did not exist, and that his so-called 
Travels in America were mythical. Schultz reached St. 
Louis on the 22nd of November, 1807. He came by land 
from St. Genevieve, taking the road on the Illinois side of 
the river, by way of Prairie du Rocher. He says that 
before arriving opposite St. Louis he rode "fifteen miles 
over one of the richest and most beautiful tracts I have 
ever seen. It is called the American bottom, and is a 
prairie of such extent as to weary the eye in tracing its 
boundaries." Schultz crossed the Mississippi at the Ca- 
hokia ferry and rode three miles to "the metropolis of 
Louisiana." He gives his impressions with evident inten- 
tion to be accurate. It is to be borne in mind that the time 
of this visit was only three years after the American flag 
had been raised. Subsequent to this period, the fur trade 
was reorganized, extended to the westward and northward 
and greatly expanded. 

"St Louis is beautifully situated on an elevated bank on 
the west side of the river. It contains about two hundred 
houses, which, from the whiteness of a considerable num- 
ber of them, as they are rough-cast and whitewashed, 
appear to great advantage as you approach the town. It 
is likewise a French settlement, established In the year 
1764; the inhabitants are chiefly Roman Catholics, and 
have a chapel and a confessor. A small number of Ameri- 
can families have of late years settled In this town, and 
have had so much influence as to give a decided American 
tone to the fashions of the place; but as their numbers are 
too few to erect a church of their own, they have, by way 
of amusement, made arrangement with the father confessor, 

11 



to give them a little lecture in his chapel every Sunday 
evening. 

"I observe two or three big houses in the town, which 
are said to have cost from twenty to sixty thousand dollars, 
but they have nothing either of beauty or taste in their 
appearance to recommend them, being simply big, heavy, 
and unsightly structures. In this country, however, where 
fashion and taste differ so materially from fashion and 
taste with us, they are considered as something not only 
grand, but even elegant. 

"St. Louis has for many years past been the center of 
the fur trade in this countiy; but this branch of business, I 
am informed, is now rapidly declining, in consequence 
of the game becoming scarce. 

"This town has been strongly fortified by the Spanish 
government, having two forts, two blockhouses, four stone 
towers, and one half moon. These encircle the whole town 
on the land side, and are within gunshot of each other. 
Some little care is still taken of the forts and barracks 
occupied by the garrison which is stationed at this place, 
but the towers and blockhouses are entirely neglected, and, 
for want of repairs, already tumbling to pieces." 

The comment on the weather would indicate that the 
traveler encountered a cold snap unusual for the last of 
November. He had one very uncomfortable experience. 
Setting out alone to visit the lead mines at Potosi he lost 
the way in the hills of the Meramec river, shivered all night 
and came back to St. Louis. 

"St. Louis is situated in lat. 38, 18 N. long. 89.36 W., 
from which you would be inclined to believe the climate 
somewhat warmer than that of New York, in lat. 40. 40; 
but I certainly do not think I ever experienced in that city 
colder weather, at this season of the year, than I have felt 
in St. Louis for these few days past. I made this remark 
to some gentlemen who have lived here for four or five 
years past, but who formerly resided in Philadelphia ; and 
they were of opinion that the winters generally were 
equally severe, but did not last so long." 

The fame of feminine St. Louis had reached Christian 
Schultz before he saw the white walls of the town. He 
investigated and was satisfied and found the ladies "emi- 
nently entitled" to their reputation. 

"The ladies of St. Louis, I had heard, generally cele- 
brated through all the lower country for their beauty, 

12 



modesty, and agreeable manners, as well as for their taste 
and the splendor of their dress. I was, therefore, very 
happy in having an opportunity of accepting an invitation 
to one of their balls, on the first Sunday evening after my 
arrival ; having previously attended the chapel, for the 
express purpose of being able to form some kind of judg- 
ment with respect to their claims; and I must confess, that 
they appeared to be eminently entitled to all that I had 
heard in their favor." 



13 



The 


Fl 


rst 


Ma 


g 


azine 


Artie 


le 


o n 


St. 


L 


ou i s 



St. Louis, as seen from the Illinois side in 1807, was in- 
spiring. So it seemed to a lady traveler. With artistic 
vision and facile pen the impression was preserved. It 
appeared in the "Literary Gazette" of Cincinnati. The 
name of the writer does not accompany the article. Influx 
of "the Bostons," as the old French habitants called the 
newcomers, had begun. It is surmised that the contributor 
to this pioneer periodical was the wife or daughter of some 
American who was staking his fortune on the future of 
St. Louis. 

"The traveler that pauses upon the eastern bank of the 
river immediately directs his eye to the opposite side of the 
river. He there contemplates a bold and rocky eminence, 
where the primeval materials of nature's strength seem 
piled in rude and disordered magnificence. The ascent is 
steep and difficult, and has the aspect at a distance of 
threatening to exclude you from the town, which it beauti- 
fully elevates to a considerable height above the water, 
at the same time proving an impenetrable rampart to ward 
oflf the encroachments of the river. You would almost 
believe the houses were united and that the roofs upheld 
and supported one another, so gradual and so beautifully 
has nature bent her brow for the reception of this village. 
From the opposite shore it has a majestic appearance, which 
it borrows from its elevated site and from a range of 
Spanish towers that crown the summit of the hill and lend 
their Gothic rudeness to complete a picture which scarcely 
has a parallel. The principal houses of St. Louis are sur- 
rounded by massive walls of stone to serve as defense in 
time of danger, the port holes with which they are pierced 
testifying that they were constructed as fortifications to 
repel the bold and sanguinary savage. Within these rough 
enclosures are planted trees of various descriptions, which, 
like infancy smiling in the arms of age, serve to decorate 
the otherwise sombre aspect of the town." 



14 



St. Louis and Its Promise 
Viewed by Brackenridge 



Judge Henry M. Brackenridge came from Pittsburg to 
St. Louis in 1811. His description of St. Louis, as he saw 
it and studied it, is graphic. The forecast of the city by 
this writer L the more remarkable when it is remembered 
that both Ste. Genevieve and St. Charles at that time 
crowded St. Louis in population and that immigration 
seemed to be inclined to favor New Madrid. In his "Views 
of Louisiana" Judge Brackenridge wrote of St. Louis: 

"This place occupies one of the best situations on the 
Mississippi, both as to site and geographical position. In 
this last respect the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi 
has certainly much greater natural advantages, but the 
ground is subject to inundation; and St. Louis has taken 
a start which it will most probably retain. It is probably 
not saying too much that it bids fair to be second to New 
Orleans in importance on this river. 

"St. Louis will probably become one of those great reser- 
voirs of the valley between the Rockey Mountains and the 
Alleghany, from whence merchandise will be distributed 
to an extensive country. It unites the advantages of three 
noble rivers, Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri. When their 
banks shall become the residence of millions, when flourish- 
ing towns shall arise, can we suppose that every vendor 
of merchandise will look to New Orleans for a supply, or 
to the Atlantic cities. There must be a place of distribu- 
tion somewhere between the mouth of the Ohio and Mis- 
souri. Besides, a trade to the northern parts of New Spain 
will be opened, and a direct communication to the East 
Indies by way of the Missouri may be more than dreamt ; 
in this case St. Louis will become the Memphis of the 
American Nile." 

When Brackenridge made his predictions, St. Louis had 
1,400 people. Immigration was beginning. This writer 
says of the impression he received as he went about St. 
Louis, first taking the view from the Illinois bank: 

"In a disjointed and scattered manner, it extends along 
the river a mile and a half, and we form the idea of a 
large and elegant town. Two or three large and costly 

IS 



buildings (though not in the modern taste) contribute in 
producing this effect. On closer examination the town 
seems to be composed of an equal proportion of stone walls, 
houses and fruit trees, but the illusion still continues. In 
ascending the second bank, which is about forty feet above 
the level of the plain, we have the town below us, and a 
view of the Mississippi in each direction, and of the fine 
country through which it passes. When the curtain of 
wood which conceals the American bottom shall have been 
withdrawn, or a vista formed by opening farms to the 
river, there will be a delightful prospect into that rich and 
elegant tract. There is a line of works on this second 
bank, erected for defense against the Indians, consisting 
of several circular towers, twenty feet in diameter and 
fifteen feet in height, a small stockaded fort and a stone 
breastwork. These are at present entirely unoccupied and 
waste, excepting the fort in one of the buildings of which 
the courts are held, while the other is used as a prison. 
Some distance from the termination of this line, up the 
river, there are a number of Indian mounds and remains 
of antiquity, which, while they are ornamental to the town, 
prove that in former times those places had also been chosen 
as the site, perhaps, of a populous city. 

The suburbs of St. Louis, at the time of Judge Bracken- 
ridge's coming, began where Fourth street is today. A 
favorite walk, which was westward into the country, 
is described. The springs the writer mentions were not 
far from where the Wabash railroad now crosses Man- 
chester avenue. 

"Looking to the west a most charming country spreads 
itself before us. It is neither very level nor hilly, but of an 
agreeable waving surface, and rising for several miles 
with an ascent almost imperceptible. Except a small belt 
to the north, there are no trees; the rest is covered with 
scrubby oak, intermixed with hazels and a few trifling 
thickets of thorn, crab-apple, or plum trees. At the first 
glance we are reminded of the environs of a great city; 
but there are no country seats, or even plain farm houses, 
it is a vast waste, yet by no means a barren soil. Such is 
the appearance until, turning to the left, the eye again 
catches the Mississippi. A number of fine springs take 
their rise here and contribute to the uneven appearance. 
The greater part face to the southwest and aid in forming 
a beautiful rivulet, which, a short distance below the town, 
gives itself to the river. I have often been delighted, in 

16 



my solitary walks, to trace the rivulet to its sources. Three 
miles from town, but within view, among a few tall oaks, 
it rises in four or five silver fountains, within a short dis- 
tance of each other, presenting a picture to the fancy of 
the poet, or the pencil of the painter. I have fancied my- 
self for a moment on classic ground, and beheld the Naiads 
pouring the stream from their urns. Close to the town 
there is a fine mill, erected by Mr. Chouteau on this stream- 
let; the dam forms a beautiful sheet of water, and afiFords 
much amusement, in fishing and fowling, to the people of 
the town. The common field of St. Louis was formerly 
enclosed on this bank, consisting of several thousand acres; 
at present there are not more than two thousand under 
cultivation ; the rest of the ground looks like the worn 
common in the neighborhood of a large town, the grass 
kept down and short and the loose soil in several places 
cut open into gaping ravines." 



17 



Creoles of St. Louis as 
Franchere Saw Them 



Gabriel Franchere wrote an excellent narrative of his 
experience with Astor in the fur trade. He dissented from 
the estimate which Washington Irving put upon the St. 
Louis of that time: 

"And although it forms no part of the narrative of my 
voyage, yet as subsequent visits to the West and an inti- 
mate knowledge of St. Louis, enable me to correct Mr. 
Irving's poetical rather than accurate description of that 
place, I may well do it here. St. Louis now bids fair to 
rival ere long the 'Queen of the West'; Mr. Irving describes 
her as a small trading place, where trappers, half-breeds, 
gay, frivolous Canadian boatmen, etc., etc., congregated 
and revelled, with that lightness and buoyancy of spirit in- 
herited from their French forefathers; the indolent Creole 
caring for little more than the enjoyment of the present 
hour; a motley population, half-civilized, half-barbarous, 
thrown on his canvas into one general confused (I allow 
highly picturesque) mass, without respect of persons; but 
it is fair to say with due homage to the sketcher, who has 
verged slightly on caricature in the use of that humor- 
loving pencil admired by all the world, that St. Louis even 
then contained its noble, industrious, and I may say, prince- 
ly merchants. It could boast its Chouteaus, Soulards, 
Cerres, Chenies, Valles, and La Croiz, with other kindred 
spirits, whose descendants prove the worth of their sires by 
their own and are now among the leading business men, as 
their fathers were the pioneers of the flourishing St. Louis." 



18 



The Climate of St. Louis 
as it was in 1811 



Writing from St. Louis about 1811, John Bradbury, the 
English naturalist, described the climate as he had found 
it from experience extending through several seasons ; 

"The climate is very fine. The spring commences about 
the middle of March in the neighborhood of St. Louis, at 
which time the willow, the elm, and maples are in flower. 
The spring rains usually occur in May, after which month 
the weather continues fine, almost without interruption, un- 
til September, when rain again occurs about the equinox, 
after which it remains again fine, serene weather until near 
Christmas, when winter commences. About the beginning 
or middle of October the Indian summer begins, which is 
immediately known by the change that takes place in the 
atmosphere, as it now becomes hazy, or what they terra 
smoky. This gives to the sun a red appearance, and takes 
away the glare of light, so that all the day, except a few 
hours about noon, it may be looked at with the naked eye 
without pain; the air is perfectly quiescent and all is still- 
ness, as if nature, after her exertions during the summer, 
was now at rest. The winters are sharp, but it may be 
remarked that less snow falls, and they are much more mod- 
erate on the west than on the east side of the Alleghanies 
in similar latitudes." 



19 



Jo 
a 


hn 
H 


Mu 

o s t 


11; 
i 


an 
n 


phy as 
18 2 1 



"The St. Louis millionaire," Brackenridge called John 
Mullanphy. There were other men of wealth in the town 
in the first two decades after American occupation, but 
Brackenridge picks Mullanphy for "the millionaire." He 
tells how the million came about. About the time of the war 
of 1812, Mullanphy was speculating in cotton. He had on 
hand a considerable quantity at New Orleans. General 
Jackson took this cotton to make the breastworks behind 
which he waited for Packenham, the English general. 
Mullanphy went to "Old Hickory" and protested. "This 
is your cotton?" said General Jackson. "Then no one has 
a better right to defend it. Take a musket and stand in 
the ranks." When the war was over, Mullanphy tore the 
breastworks to pieces, shipped his bales of cotton to Eng- 
land and cleared a million dollars. That is the storj' 
Brackenridge tells preliminary to this: 

"One day he called to see me and invited me to dine 
with him. I found him in a large brick house, perhaps 
the largest in the town, unfurnished and untenanted with 
the exception of a back room of which he was the sole 
occupant. Here I found him seated before a wood fire 
(coal was not in use at that time), while two catfish heads 
were broiling on two chips of wood. 'There,' said he, 
'you see your dinner; that head is yours and this is mine; 
we must each do the cooking.' It was a Barmecide feast, 
and I determined to humor it. We had some excellent 
bread and butter, and to make amends for the dishes, drank 
exquisite Madeira out of dirty tumblers. The dessert, I 
must add, was the most substantial part of the entertain- 
ment; going to his safe he brought forth a bag of dollars 
and placing it on the table, 'There,' said he, 'is a retain- 
ing fee if I should want your professional services.' " 



20 



The Inaugural Address 
of The First Mayor 



St. Louis became a city in 1823. Dr. William Carr 
Lane, who had come from Pennsylvania a few years pre- 
viously, was elected mayor. He received 122 of the 220 
votes cast. His inaugural address was a gem: 

"The fortunes of the inhabitants may fluctuate, you and 
I may sink into oblivion and even our families become ex- 
tinct, but the progressive rise of our city is morally certain. 
The causes of its prosperity are inscribed on the very face 
of the earth and are as permanent as the foundations of 
the soil and the sources of the Mississippi. These matters 
are not brought to your recollection for the mere purpose 
of eulogy, but that a suitable system of improvements may 
always be kept in view, that the rearing of the infant city 
may correspond with the expectations of such a mighty 
futurity." 



21 



The 
of St 


Show 
. Louis 


PI 

i n 


aces 
1825 



In Travels in North America, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, 
describes the museum of General William Clark as he saw 
it in 1825: 

"We then went to see Mrs. Clark, who, through the 
secretary of her husband, Mr. Alexander, exhibited to us 
the museum collected by the governor on his travels, 
and since considerably augmented. Mr. Alexander showed 
us articles of Indian clothing of different kinds, and va- 
rious materials. Except the leather, the larger part of these 
materials were American, or rather entirely European in 
their origin. A single garment alone was made by the 
Cherokees of cotton, which was pulled, spun, wove on a. 
loom, made by an Indian and even dyed blue by them. 
Besides several weapons of different tribes, wooden toma- 
hawks, or battle-axes, in one of them was a sharp piece of 
iron to strike into the skulls of their prisoners; another 
made of elk's-horn, bows of elk's-horn and of wood, spears, 
quivers, and arrows, a spear-head of an Indian of the 
Columbia river, hewed out of a flint, a water-proof basket 
of the same people, in which cooking can be performed, 
several kinds of tobacco pipes, especially the calumet, or 
great pipe of peace. The head of this pipe is cut out of 
a sort of argillaceous earth or serpentine; in time of war, 
the spot, where this earth is dug out, is regarded as neu- 
tral, and hostile parlies, vvfho meet each other at that place, 
cannot engage in any thing inimical against each other. 
The pipe, which the commissioners of the United States 
use at treaties with the Indians has a heavy silver head, 
and a peculiarly handsome ornamented wooden stem. 

"Farther, Mr. Alexander showed us the medals which 
the Indian chiefs have received at different periods from 
the Spanish, English and American governments, and the 
portraits of various Indian chiefs v/ho have been at St. 
Louis to conclude treaties with the governer, who is also 
Indian agent. Among the remarkable things in natural 
history, we noticed an alligator, eight feet long; a pelican; 
the horns of a wild goat, shot by the governor in his tour 



22 



among the Rocky Mountains ; the horns of a mountain 
ram, and those of an elk, several bearskins, among others, 
of the white bear, buffalo, elk, skunk, which were sewed 
together in a robe, skins of martins, ferrets, etc., etc. ; more- 
over, several petrifications of wood, and animal subjects, 
among others, of elephants' teeth, a piece of rock-salt, 
tolerably white, yet not shooting in crystals, as the Eng- 
lish; various crystals; a large piece of rock crystal; very 
handsome small agates, which are here taken for corne- 
lians, etc. Among the curiosities, the most remarkable 
were two canoes, the one of animal-hide, the other of tree- 
bark, a peace-belt which consists of a white girdle set with 
glass beads two hands breadth' wide; farther, snowshoes, 
nets which are drawn over an oval frame, also the rackets, 
which they use in playing their game of ball, etc., etc. 

"After the examination of this interesting collection, 
we paid our visit to Mr. Chouteau. I gave him the de- 
scription of the opening of a Roman mound, at which I 
was present with my father in the year 1813, and he ex- 
pressed his astonishment at the great similarity between 
these mounds and those of the Indian grave-hills. Among 
the stone war-hatchets in the governor's museum, there 
are several resembling the battle-axes which are found in 
Germany in these mounds. 

"Mr. Chouteau was a venerable man of eighty years, 
a native of New Orleans. He told us that at the founding 
of St. Louis, he felled the first tree. His house, resembling 
in architecture the old government house in New Orleans, 
was the first substantial building erected here. The con- 
versation with this aged man, who received us like a pa- 
triarch surrounded by his descendants, was very interest- 
ing. He was of the opinion that the people from whom 
the Indian antiquities have come down to us, either by 
pestilential disease or by an all-destroying war, must have 
been blotted from the earth. He believed that Behring's 
Straits were more practicable formerly than at present — 
at least they must have been Asiatic hordes that came to 
America. How, otherwise, (asked he) could the elephants, 
since there have been none ever upon this continent, have 
reached the American bottom, where their bones are now 
found? This bottom is a very rich body of land, running 
south opposite to St. Louis. Mounds and fortifications are 
found there. Here the elephant bones are not scattered 



23 



about, but found lying in a long row near each other, as 
if they had been killed in a battle, or at the assault of 
some fortification." 



24 



The Estimate of a King's 
Representative in 1825 



The Duke of Saxe-Weimar was one of the earliest 
European travelers to visit St. Louis. He came in 1825. 
Ten years later the foreigners arrived in flocks to write 
books about this country. When he returned to his own 
land, the report of the duke's observations was published 
in a book bearing the title of "Travels in North America." 
The journey was of an official character. It was under the 
patronage of the King of the Netherlands. 

"St. Louis has existed since 1763 and was settled by 
French and Canadians. In that year, when Canada, with 
the left bank of the Illinois and Mississippi, were ceded to 
England, these people were not willing to be English sub- 
jects and withdrew to the right bank of the Mississippi, 
which then was under the dominion of France, but soon 
afterwards was given up to Spain. The immigrants built 
St. Louis and St. Charles on the Missouri, as well as several 
other little places. They lived a long time cut off from 
the civilized world and surrounded by Indians. 

"A glance at the map of the United States shows what 
an interesting place St. Louis is destined to become, when 
the white population has spread itself more westwardly 
from the Mississippi, and up along the Missouri river. 
Perhaps it may yet become the capital of a great nation." 

Of the appearance of the settlement at that time the 
duke wrote: 

"St. Louis lies upon a rather high rocky foundation on 
the right bank of the Mississippi, and stretches itself out 
nearly a mile in length in the direction of the river. The 
most of the houses have a garden towards the water, the 
earth is supported by walls, so that the gardens form so 
many terraces. The city contains about 4,000 inhabitants. 
It consists of one long, main street, running parallel with 
the river, from which several side streets run to the 
heights behind the city. Here single houses point out the 
space where another street parallel with the main street, 
can one day be built. The generality of the houses are 
new, built of brick, two stories high; some are of rough 
stone, and others of wood and clay, in the Spanish taste, 

25 



resembling the old houses in New Orleans. Round the 
city along the heights formerly ran a wall, but it is now 
taken away. At the corners stood massive round guard 
towers, the walls of which one still can see." 

Like many other visitors to St. Louis in the early part of 
the century the Duke of Saxe-Weimar was greatly inter- 
ested in the mounds. 

"In a northern direction from the city are seven arti- 
ficial hilllocks in two rows, which form a parallelogram. 
They belong to the much-talked-of Indian mounds and 
fortifications of which numbers are found on the shores 
of the Ohio and Mississippi, and which are dispersed over 
these regions from Lake Erie to New Mexico. There exist 
neither documents nor traditions concerning the erection of 
these works, or of the tribe of people who erected them. 
In some a great quantity of human bones has been discov- 
ered ; in others, on the contrary, nothing. This double 
row, near St. Louis, has not yet been examined." 



26 



Commercial Opportunity, 
St. Louis, Eighty Years Ago 



Charles Sealsfield, an English traveler, came to St. 
Louis in 1827. He wrote, for English consumption, "The 
Americans as They Are." He made some surprising revel- 
ations of the ways in which St. Louis traders took advantage 
of the New Orleans market when the Ohio, the Wabash 
and the Tennessee rivers were "almost dried up": 

"On the third day, at 12 o'clock, we reached the town 
of St. Louis. This town extends in a truly picturesque 
situation for the length of two miles along the river, in 
three parallel streets, rising one above the other in the 
form of terraces on a stratum of limestone. The houses 
are for the most part built of this material and surrounded 
with gardens. The number of buildings amounts to 620, 
and that of the inhabitants to 5,000. Its principal buildings 
are a Catholic and two Protestant churches, a branch bank 
of the United States, and the bank of St. Louis, the court- 
house, the government house, an academy and a theatre. 
Besides these there are a number of wholesale and retail 
stores and an abundance of billiard tables and dancing 
rooms. The trade of St. Louis is not so extensive as that 
of Louisville and less liable to interruption as the naviga- 
tion is not impeded in any season of the year, the Mississippi 
being at all times navigable for the largest vessels. An 
exception indeed occurred in 1802 when the Ohio and other 
rivers were almost dried up. The inhabitants of St. Louis 
have a never-failing channel for carrying their produce to 
market. This they generally do when the rivers which 
empty themselves into the Mississippi are so low that they 
have no apprehension of finding any competition in New 
Orleans. Eighty dollars was the general price per bullock 
which, at a later period would not have obtained $25. 
Flour was $8, whereas, two months afterwards, abundance 
could be had for $2.50. In the same proportion they sold 
every other article. At the time of our arrival at St. Louis 
there were in this port five steam vessels and thirty-five 
other boats. 



27 



"St. Louis is a sort of New Orleans on a smaller scale. 
In both places are to be found a number of coffee houses 
and dancing rooms. The French are seen engaged in the 
same amusements and fashions that formerly characterized 
the Creoles of Louisiana. For the last five years men of 
property and respectability, attracted by the superior ad- 
vantages of the situation, have settled at St. Louis, and 
their example and influence have been conducive of some 
good to public morals. Slavery, which is introduced here, 
though so ill-adapted to a northern state, contributes not 
a little to the aristocratic notions of the people, the least 
of whom, if he can call himself the master of one slave, 
would be ashamed to put his hand to any work. Still 
there is more ready money among the inhabitants than in 
any of the western states and prices are demanded ac- 
cordingly." 



28 



A 


Dream of 


St. 


Louis in 1830 



Prophecy was more in vogue two or three generations 
ago than it is now. The pace of the present day is suffi- 
ciently rapid for most minds. It engrosses the attention 
to the discouragement of guessing far into the future. In 
1830, Professor John Russell, an educator and a literary 
man of considerable reputation in the Mississippi Valley, 
entertained readers of that period with a description of 
St. Louis "three hundred years hence." His story was 
published in the Illinois Monthy Magazine, the chief liter- 
ary periodical west of Cincinnati. Professor Russell fell 
asleep, according to his imagination, at the foot of a tree 
on the Illinois bluflfs, near Shurtleff College, or perhaps it 
was not far from the classic shades of McKendree College, 
then two years old. The exact locality he did not designate. 
When he awoke the year was 2130. He was amazed to 
find himself in a very closely settled region. He walked 
along a road between rows of cottages and gardens. His 
own words tell the wonders he saw: 

"At length I reached a spot which I recognized in a 
moment; — the bluff which overlooks the great American 
bottom." How beautiful a prospect was presented ! The 
deep forest that once covered it had disappeared, and, as 
I could distinguish from the heights of the bluff, the 
whole bottom was teeming with population. 'Every rood 
maintained its man.' The little squares of land, bounded 
by a green hedgerow, with a house or cottage to each, looked 
beautifully in the distance. At intervals, columns of smoke 
were thrown up from the chimneys of large factories, and 
the sound of the steam engine was heard in every direc- 
tion. Industry is not among the virtues of a slave, and 
I knew by the busy throng of old and young around, the 
low, straw-thatched, but neat cottages, that my native land 
was yet free. 

"My thoughts reverted to St. Louis and I was ruminat- 
ing upon the various changes that had probably taken place 
in its wealth and population when that city, with its thou- 
sand spires, burst upon my view ! How glorious was the 

29 



sight presented by the great Father of Waters! A forest 
of ir.a^ts lined both shores for miles and every flag of Eu- 
rope waved at the mast-head of the steamships that 
ploughed its waters. I entered the city by one of the iron 
bridges that spanned the river. The streets near the water 
first excited my attention. The bustle of loading and un- 
loading the vessels ; the constant discharging of cannon 
from steamships arriving and departing, carrying on com- 
merce with every portion of the globe; the various costumes 
and dialects of merchants and sailors from China, Japan, 
and the islands of the Pacific, prepared me to learn, without 
surprise, that St. Louis, in the interior of the most fertile 
region of the globe, far exceeded in wealth and population 
the largest city of the eastern hemisphere. 

"The language of the city bore a much nearer affinity 
to my own than that of the country. Many new words 
had been introduced, and others had acquired a new defi- 
nition and pronunciation ; but I had less difficulty in under- 
standing those who appeared to be the educated. Sub- 
sequently I was informed that the English language was 
divided into three distinct dialects, differing from each 
other in writing and in sound: that of the British Islands, 
that of America, and that of India ; produced by the differ- 
ence of climate, governments, customs, and the languages 
of the people intermingling with each other. 

"I left the streets near the wharves, and passed a great 
distance beyond the former boundary of the city, yet all was 
still dense. The display of merchandise from the lofty 
buildings that lined the streets, was rich beyond descrip- 
tion. The stream of passing people, the rattling of car- 
riages on the pavement, the cries of people vending their 
commodities in the street, and the din of the artisan's ham- 
mer, were all mingled together in one confused sound. I 
was gratified that so large a proportion of buildings were 
devoted to religious worship. 

"The sun was now setting over this wilderness of houses. 
His parting beams flamed on the gilded spires of this me- 
tropolis, and reminded me of the years when I had beheld 
him sinking behind an unbroken line of forest. I remem- 
bered the friend with whom I had often walked at that 
hour, on the banks of a romantic little lake in the environs 
of the city. I wished once more to tread the spot, hallowed 
by the memory of a long-lost friend. With some difii- 



30 



cuhy I reached the vicinity of the lake. Thick clouds of 
smoke hung over that portion of the city, caused by the 
thousand fires of the steam engines which the lake sup- 
plied with water. Here was the theater of the most ex- 
tensive manufactures of the West. I would gladly have 
entered these manufactories, but the labors of the day were 
closed, and I heard only the expiring sound of business, 
and saw the fading wreaths of smoke. The artisans were 
retiring to their homes in the high buildings of the dirty 
and narrow streets. I rejoiced, as I saw this multitude of 
all ages and sexes, that employment and sustenance was 
afforded to so numerous a population, and I remembered 
with exultation, that I had warmly advocated every plan 
that was suggested to induce immigration to the West, 
even giving the lands, which belonged to all, as a bribe to 
entice settlers. Now was the good policy of these measures 
apparent wherever I went, in the overflowing population of 
country and town." 



31 



A Scotchman's Search for 
"Common Life"in St.Louis 



"The true state of every nation is the state of common 
life." James Stuart took this quotation from Samuel John- 
son as the text of his two-volume description of North 
America. Stuart vpas a Scotchman. He spent three years 
journeying in this country. He visited St. Louis in 1830. 
His book was published in Edinburgh in 1833. In his 
preface Stuart said : "If the following pages have any 
merit, it consists merely in their conveying, in plain lan- 
guage, a faithful and candid representation of the facts 
which the author observed and noted in the places where 
they presented themselves." In this spirit the author looked 
for "common life" in St. Louis and found it in a hotel 
which did not have wash basins in the bed rooms: 

"We arrived in St. Louis on Sunday, the 25th of April 
(1830), on so cold a morning that the first request I made 
on reaching the City hotel, in the upper part of the town, 
was for a fire, which was immediately granted. The hotel 
turned out a very comfortable one. It contains a great deal 
of accommodation. The only inconvenience I felt arose 
from the people not being accustomed, as seems generally 
the case in the western country, to place water-basins and 
a towel in every bed-room. The system of washing at 
some place near the well is general, but the waiters or 
chambermaids never refuse to bring everything to the 
bed-room that is desired. It is, however, so little the prac- 
tice to bring a washing apparatus to the bed-rooms that 
they are very apt to forget a general direction regularly 
to do so. We had a great quantity of fine poultry at this 
house; and the table, upon the whole, was extremely well 
managed." 

The first view of St. Louis in those days was very 
different from what it is now: 

"The approach by water to St. Louis, which may be 
properly called the metropolis of the country on the west 
bank of the Mississippi, is very handsome. The bank 
rises rapidly for about twenty feet above the river, and 
then more gradually for forty or fifty feet further. The 
side of the river, as well as part of the plain above it, is 

32 



covered with the houses which extend along the river in 
three parallel streets, rising above each other. The prin- 
cipal street is above a mile long. St. Louis was first settled 
by the French about the year 1765. There are several 
hotels. There is a Catholic cathedral, two Presbyterian 
churches, one Baptist and several other meeting houses." 

The natural advantages of the city were beginning to 
be apparent. Stuart noted them comprehensively: 

"There is much rich land and a great deal of prairie 
on both sides of the river in the neighborhood of St. Louis. 
It was essentially a French place until within the last 
fifteen years; but the American population is now great 
and the town is in a very thriving state. St. Louis is more 
nearly in the center of the great territories of which the 
United States consist than any other city in the Union, 
and the most advantageously situated for commerce, near 
the point of union of the greatest of the American rivers. 
The Mississippi is at all times navigable between St. 
Louis and New Orleans. The fur trade is carried on to a 
great extent ; and the neighborhood of the lead mines, 
the most extensive on the globe (consisting of the richest 
ore and covering an area of more than 3,000 square miles), 
render St. Louis the chief mart for lead. St. Louis is not 
only rich in this mineral, but contains immense quantities 
of the richest iron ore and a prodigious field of lime, as 
well as coal. The population consists of about 7,000 per- 
sons. Several newspapers are printed here." 

The Scotchman did not neglect to look into religious 
conditions: 

"I attended divine worship in the Presbyterian church 
on the day I reached St. Louis (April, 1830). Having 
asked the landlord of the inn which was the best church 
to go to, he at once replied, 'I go to no church, but the Pres- 
byterian minister is the rage.' The Presbyterian minister, 
Mr. Potts, delivered a very good sermon upon this text: 
'The sting of sin is death,' in a very neatly seated church 
in the upper part of the town. It was a funeral sermon, 
in consequence of the death of Mr. Woods, an English 
gentleman from London, one of the elders or deacons of 
the church. In the afternoon I went into the meeting house 
of people of color. They had one of themselves preaching 
sensibly, though it appeared he was not a man of much 
education. The sermon was, in great measure, composed 
of Scriptural quotations, and was delivered impressively; 
but there was far less manifestation of excitement than in 
a church of people of color, which I afterwards attended 
in New York." 

33 



Free transportation on the Wiggins ferry appealed to 
the Scotchman and led to an examination of that garden 
spot — the American bottom : 

"There is a steam ferry boat across the river, which is 
a mile broad. The fare is six pence sterling and $70 is 
about the amount of the average daily receipts. The first 
IjlKDat put upon the river was a steamboat, and it answered 
so well that a steamboat line has now been established, and 
the concern is a very good one, belonging to New York 
people, one of whom. Captain Wiggins, commands the boat. 
He is a very intelligent person, and seemed very anxious 
to substitute a low-pressure engine for the high-pressure 
one in the boat. I entered into conversation with him 
and, as soon as he found I was from Britain and traveling 
for amusement, he directed his collector to receive no money 
from me no matter how often I might cross. I availed 
myself of this privilege again and again, even in taking a 
carriage and horses across. 

"After crossing the river, I engaged one of the neigh- 
boring farmers, Mr. Abrams, to drive me out for a few 
hours over the immense prairie adjoining, which, in one 
direction, is one hundred miles long. The prairie was 
in great beauty. It consisted of beautiful undulating 
ground, in which there were tracks of roads generally dry. 
It was covered with wild strawberries, and with crab 
apples. Here and there, there were lakes, and now and 
then we came to a plantation of ground, enclosed with 
the ordinary strong railing of this country, a good cottage 
and some cultivated land. One of the planters whom I 
saw, a Frenchman, from Verdun, gave us a glass of excel- 
lent cider. He is just now finishing a house in the middle 
of the prairie, attached to which he has got three hundred 
acres of land. He gives a magnificent description of the 
quantity of game that surrounds him. He and a boy have 
killed sixty wild ducks in a morning. There is no re- 
striction against him or any of the planters putting as many 
cattle or horses as they choose on the unenclosed part of 
the prairie land, or cutting as much grass as they like; but 
the extent of the ground is so great that a good herdsman 
is indispensably necessary to look after cattle put upon the 
prairie. Mr. Flint says, in reference to Missouri, what 
is perfectly true, that 'hundreds of thousands of acres of 
first-rate wheat land, covered with grass and perfectly free 
from shrubs and bushes, invite the plow ; and that if the 
country was cultivated to a proper extent, it might be the 
granary of the world.' " 

34 



"Th 


e 


R 


a m 


bier 


i n 


No 


r 


th 


A 


m e r 1 


ca" 



"The Rambler in North America" was the title Charles 
Joseph Latrobe chose for his book which was published in 
London. Mr. Latrobe traveled in the west in 1833. He 
published his impressions in 1835, dedicating the volume 
to Washington Irving. The motive which inspired his 
visit to the west, he gave in this extraordinary sentence: 

"I desired to follow into their places of refuge and re- 
treat, the crowd of human beings which the last two 
centuries had sent in annual swarms upon the pathway 
opened across the great western waters by the constancy 
and daring of Columbus; — men of all nations, of all ranks 
and degrees, those of unsullied purity of life and character, 
and others who were steeped to the lips in crime; — the 
patriot, the dreamer after Utopian schemes of happiness 
and liberty; — men goaded by political and religious perse- 
cution; — the disappointed in heart and purpose; — hun- 
dreds incited by speculation, thousands by poverty; — the 
tens of thousands who, having all to hope and nothing to 
lose, had disappeared from the countries of the East, had 
gone and seemingly buried themselves under the deep 
shade of the western forest or beneath the tall grass of 
the western prairie." 

It was to be expected that the observations of the 
Rambler in St. Louis would be sociological. And so they 
were: 

"Since this part of the continent became subject to the 
flag of the United States, the city of St. Lojuis, overrun by 
the speculative New Englanders, has begun to spread over 
a large extent of ground on the bank of the river, and 
promises to become one of the most flourishing cities of the 
west. A new town has in fact sprung up by the side 
of the old one, with long, well-built streets and handsome 
rows of warehouses, constructed of excellent gray lime- 
stone, quarried on the spot. The inhabitants, of French 
extraction, are, however, still numerous, both in their 
part of the town and in the neighboring villages ; and it 
is amusing to an European to step aside from the hurry 
and bustle of the upper streets, full of pale, scheming faces, 

35 



depressed brows, and busy fingers, to the quiet quarters of 
the lower division, where many a characteristic sight and 
sound may be observed. Who can peep into the odd little 
coffee-houses with their homely billiard tables — see those 
cosy balconies and settees — mark the prominent nose, rosy 
cheek, and the contented air and civil demeanor of the 
males, and the intelligent eye and gossiping tongue of the 
females — listen to the sound of the fiddle, or perchance the 
jingle of a harpsichord, or spinnet, from the window of 
the wealthier habitant, crisp and sharp like a box of crick- 
ets, without thinking of scenes in the provinces of the 
mother country ?" 



36 



A 


N 


e w York 


e r 


i n 


th 


e 


Ancient 


Ci 


ty 



"A Winter in the West by an anonymous New Yorker," 
presents a picture of St. Louis as it appeared to an Ameri- 
can author's vision in 1835: 

"You last left me in the ancient city of St. Louis, the 
capital and metropolis, though not yet the commercial em- 
porium of the grand valley of the Mississippi — once the 
untima thule of western adventure, and still the depot of 
the fur ti-ade and bureau of Indian affairs. Here the 
Spaniard, the Frenchman and the American have in turn 
held rule and their blood, with no slight sprinkling of that 
of the aborigines, now commingles in the veins of its in- 
habitants. 

"The aspect of the town partakes of the characteristics 
of all of its original possessors: In one section you find it 
built up entirely with the broad, steep-roofed stone edifices 
of the French, and the Spaniard's tall stuccoed dwelling 
raising its tiers of open corridors above them, like a once 
showy but half-defaced galleon in a fleet of battered 
frigates ; while another will present you only with the 
clipper-built brick houses of the American residents, — light 
as a Baltimore schooner, and pert-looking as a Connecticut 
smack. The town lies on two plateaus, extending along 
the Mississippi for some miles. The first of these steppes 
rises gently from the water, till, at the distance of about 
a hundred yards, it becomes perfectly level, and affords a 
fine plane for the main street of the place, which runs 
parallel to the river. An acclivity, rather longer and 
steeper, then intervenes, when the second plateau com- 
mences, and runs back a perfectly level plain, extending 
for miles in every direction. This plain, near the town, is 
covered with shrub oaks and other undergrowth ; but it 
finally assumes the character of a naked prairie, which 
probably at no very distant time extended here to the banks 
of the Mississippi. 

"That part of the town immediately upon the river is 
built, in great measure, on a rock that lies a few feet below 
the surface of the soil ; the stone excavated in digging the 
cellars affording a fine material for the erection of some 

37 



substantial warehouses that line the wharf. The site, 
for a great city, apart from its admirable geographical 
position, is one of the finest that could be found ; and hav- 
ing been laid out of late years with broad rectangular 
streets, St. Louis will, however it may increase in size, 
always be an airy, cheerful-looking place. But its streets 
command no interesting prospects, and indeed the town 
has nothing of scenic beauty in its position, unless viewed 
from beneath the boughs of the immense trees on the 
alluvial bottom opposite, when the whitewashed walls and 
gray stone parapets of the old French houses present rather 
a romantic appearance." 

The New Yorker was impressed with the mounds. He 
offered the suggestion that they be preserved in a park 
"which might be the pride of St. Louis." Unfortunately 
there was no civic league in those days. The mounds went 
the way of non-productive property just as the New Yorker 
feared they would: 

'"St. Louis can boast one class of objects among its 
sources of attraction, which are alone sufficient to render 
it one of the most interesting places in the Union. It is 
a collection of those singular ancient mounds, which, com- 
mencing in the western part of the State of New York, and 
reaching, as Humboldt tells us, to the interior of Mexico, 
have so entirely set at naught the ingenuity of the antiquary. 
The mounds of the north suburb of St. Louis occupy a 
commanding position on the Mississippi, and cover ground 
enough, together, for a large body of men to camp upon. 
They stand distinct from each other, generally in the form 
of truncated pyramids, with a perfect rectangular base. 
At one point four or five tumuli are so grouped together 
as to form nearly two sides of a square, while at another, 
several hundred yards off, two or more detached mounds 
rise singly from the plain. The summit of one of these is 
occupied by a public reservoir, for furnishing the town 
with drinking water; the supply being forced up to the 
tank by a steam engine on the banks of the river, and 
subsequently distributed by pipes throughout the city. This 
mound, with the exception of one or two enclosed within 
the handsome grounds of General Ashley, is the only one 
fenced from the destruction that always sooner or later 
overtakes such non-productive property, when in the suburbs 
of a rapidly growing city; and it is a subject of surprise 
to a stranger, that, considering the want of public squares 
in the town, individual taste and public spirit do not unite 

38 



to preserve these beautiful eminences in their exact form, 
and connect them by an enclosure, with shrubbery and 
walks, thus forming a park which might be the pride of 
St. Louis. The prettily cultivated gardens in the environs, 
and the elegance and liberality shown in the construction 
of more than one new private dwelling in the heart of the 
town, evince that neither taste nor means are wanting to 
suggest and carry into effect such an improvement." 



39 



Practical Observations 
of a Farmer in 1835 



"Patrick ShirreflF, farmer," as he designates himself on 
the title page of his tour through North America, visited 
St. Louis just before 1835. "Being a farmer in the strict- 
est sense of the word," he says, "and having written the 
volume at intervals snatched from professional duties, I 
make no pretensions to correctness, much less elegance of 
composition. My only aim has been to state plainly and 
freely what appeared to be truth, and I trust this will be 
received as an apology for any inaccuracies of style which 
may be discovered, and for such dogmatic and homespun 
expressions as may be considered inconsistent with good 
taste." Shirreff was from East Lothian. He was studying 
this country for the benefit of East Lothian farmers. His 
book was published in Edinburgh. 

The information obtained in St. Louis was intensely 
practical: 

"This is a place of extensive trade, being the chief 
depot of lead which is furnished in vast quantities by the 
states of Illinois and Missouri. Grist mills and other mach- 
inery are propelled by steam. I counted sixteen steamboats 
on the river, exclusive of one plying as a ferr3^boat. It is 
the chief place of wealth and trade on the Mississippi, with 
the exception of New Orleans, and may be justly consid- 
ered the metropolis of the valley of the Mississippi." 

"I visited the market night and morning, which was 
abundantly supplied with every necessary, brought forward 
by farmers from all parts of the country, and not retailed 
by stall-keepers. Many well-dressed white ladies, and 
blacks of both sexes, carried baskets over their arms, and 
were making purchases, but I did not observe a white 
gentleman. Here I first saw the egg-plant. For hen eggs 
9I/2 pence a dozen and for skinned squirels 1^/2 pence each, 
sterling money." 

It was altogether natural for the East Lothian farmer to 
observe the soil. Mr Shirreif came to St. Louis overland, 
He traveled by wagon from St. Charles through St. Louis 
county. 

40 



"For nearly six miles before reaching St. Louis the road 
passes through a prairie country of undulating red clay, 
and apparently speedily getting into forest. The landlord 
told me he had visited this district many years before, 
which was then without a tree. There is a race course 
Vt'ithin three miles of St. Louis which appears well fre- 
quented. I had hitherto observed the vine growing chief- 
ly by the sides of lakes and rivers but here it was grow- 
ing on the highest and most elevated situations, loaded 
Avith fruit. The prevailing tree on the partially wooded 
part of the road was the oak. I first observed the catalpa 
tree in the streets of St. Charles, and the persimmon, in 
traveling to St. Louis. This fruit was disagreeable to my 
palate. 

"Throughout my tour in the States of New England 
and Upper Canada, I had found the soil of all districts 
where the surface was considerably undulating uniformly 
of inferior quality. Michigan presented the same appear- 
ance and on a few of the prairies I fancied I could trace 
the same feature. I had considered the subject on different 
occasions and began to draw a general conclusion, which 
this day's experience completely upset. Here the surface 
was one of the most undulating I had traveled over, and 
uniformly of fertile clay. I afterwards found some of the 
swelling grounds of Ohio of this character." 



41 



A 


r r i b u 


te 


t 


o 


Pic- 


turesque 


S 


t. 


L 


ou i s 



Edmund Flagg's "The Far West," published in 1838, 
gave a charming picture of St. Louis as it was before the 
days of great industries and of unlimited soft coal consump- 
tion. Flagg came from Boston. He became an editor of 
a St. Louis paper and remained several years: 

"Speeding onward, the lofty spire and dusky walls of 
the St. Louis Cathedral, on rounding a river bend, opened 
upon the eye, the gilded crucifix gleaming in the sunlight 
from its lofty summit, and then the glittering cupolas and 
church domes, and the fresh aspect of private residences, 
mingling with the bright foliage of forest trees interspers- 
ed, all swelling gently from the water's edge, recalled 
vividly the beautiful "Mistress of the North,' 'as ray eye 
has often lingered upon her from her magnificent bay. 
A few more spires and the illusion would be perfect. For 
beauty of outline in distant view, St. Louis is deservedly 
famed. The extended range of limestone warehouses circl- 
ing the shore gives to the city a grandeur of aspect, as 
approached from the water, not often beheld, while the 
dome-rolling forest-tops stretching away in the rear, the 
sharp outline of the towers and the roofs against the western 
sky, and the funereal grove of steamboat pipes lingering the 
quay altogether make up a combination of features novel 
and picturesque." 



42 



Wise Advice of a Trav- 
eling Clergyman 



"Letters by the Way" were written for publication by 
the Rev. Dr. Humphrey in 1839, as he journeyed through 
the west. One of them was devoted to St. Louis. His chief 
criticism of that generation was the failure to provide parks. 
That was the time he urged "to secure fifty of a hundred 
acres for a grand park." The growth of the city surprised 
the divine. 

"St. Louis is larger than I supposed, and appears to be 
advancing more rapidly than any other town that I have 
seen in the Avest. The city proper now contains about 
fifteen thousand inhabitants, and there are nearly as many 
more without the limits in the immediate neighborhood. 
Many hundreds of houses were built last year notwithstand- 
ing the pressure of the times, and many more are going 
up this year. Rents are enormously high, higher than in 
any Eastern city, not excepting New York itself, and 
I believe higher than anywhere else on the continent of 
America. For a handsome two-story brick house with one 
parlor in front, you would have to pay seven or eight 
hundred dollars per annum. St. Louis must, from its posi- 
tion, become a very large commercial city, and there is no 
prospect that any other town on the Mississippi above New 
Orleans will be able to compete with it. Already the land- 
ing, covered with iron and lead and all kinds of heavy 
goods, reminds you of one of the front streets of New York 
or Philadelphia. But why don't they build wharves here?" 



43 



Charles Dickens' Amer- 
ican Notes on St. Louis 



Dickens' '"American Notes," taken in 1842, created 
much resentment in some American cities. It is noteworthy 
that the treatment of St. Louis was in the main entirely 
fair and for the most part complimentary. 

"On the fourth day after leaving Louisville we reached 
St. Louis. We went to a large hotel, called the Planter's 
House, built like an English hospital, with long passages 
and bare walls, and skylights above the room doors for 
free circulation of air. There were a great many boarders 
in it, and as many lights sparkled and glistened from the 
windows down into the street below, when we drove up, 
as if it had been illuminated on some occasion of rejoicing. 
It is an excellent house, and the proprietors have most 
bountiful notions of providing the creature comforts. Dining 
alone with my wife in her own room one day, I counted 
fourteen dishes on the table at once." 

The master of description surely nodded when it came 
to a prediction on future comparison between St. Louis and 
Cincinnati: 

"In the old French portion of the town the thorough- 
fares are narrow and crooked, and some of the houses are 
very quaint and picturesque, being built of wood, with 
tumbledown galleries from the windows, approachable by 
stairs, or rather ladders, from the street. There are queer 
little barber shops and drinking houses, too, in this quarter, 
and abundance of old tenements, with blinking casements, 
such as may be seen in Flanders. Some of these ancient 
habitations, with high garret gable windows perking into 
the roofs, have a kind of French shrug about them, and 
being lopsided with age, appear to hold their heads askew, 
besides, as if they were grimacing in astonishment at the 
American improvements. 

"It is hardly necessary to say that these consist of wharves 
and warehouses and new buildings in all directions, and 
of a great many vast plans which are still 'progressing.' 
Already, however, some very good houses, broad streets and 
marble-fronted shops have gone so far ahead as to be in a 
state of completion; and the town bids fair, in a few years, 

44 



to improve considerably, though it is not likely ever to vie 
in point of elegance or beauty with Cincinnati." 

Dickens paid just tribute to Rev. Dr. William Greenleaf 
Eliot, afterwards founder of Washington University, one 
of the most useful citizens St. Louis ever had : 

"The Roman Catholic religion, introduced here by the 
early French settlers, prevails extensively. Among the pub- 
lic institutions are a Jesuit college, a convent for 'the ladies 
of the Sacred Heart,' and a large church attached to the 
college, which was in course of erection at the time of my 
visit, and was intended to be consecrated on the 2nd of 
December in the present year. The organ will be sent from 
Belgium. In addition to these establishments there is a 
Roman Catholic cathedral, dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, 
and a hospital founded by the munificence of a deceased 
resident, who was a member of that church. It also sends 
missionaries from hence among the Indian tribes. 

"The Unitarian church is represented in this remote 
place, as in most other parts of America, by a gentleman of 
great worth and excellence. There are three free schools 
already erected and in full operation in this city. A fourth 
is building and will soon be opened." 



45 



When James Gordon Ben- 
nett Rode into St. Louis 



James Gordon Bennett, the founder of the New York 
Herald, traveled on horseback through the west in 1845. 
He found in St. Louis mushrooms so superior as to prompt 
him to say in his letter: "I must confess, with all my East- 
ern predilections, I am forced to give this Western city the 
credit of producing it in perfection." But Bennett saw more 
than mushrooms to praise in St. Louis: 

"St. Louis, regarded as a business place, may present 
inducements almost unparalleled to business men. Its ad- 
vantages and its situation render it so. Planted on a rocky 
foundation, the Mississippi passes by it quietly, while, above 
and below, this strange stream cuts a channel where it 
pleases. It is a city destined to command an influential 
place in the mercantile and manufacturing interest, while 
its growing morality will give it high rank in the religious 
world." 



46 



An 


Epic 


on St. 


L 


ouis 


i n 


the 


F i f 


t 


i e s 



In the fifties a poet found a theme in St. Louis. His 
name was Hoit. The railroads had reached the Mississippi 
river. They were to be extended westward. Conditions 
inspired an epic: 

"Within this vale, where mighty rivers wend 

In lengthened courses to their distant end ; 

Commingling in the gulf, whose beckoning, plain, 

Guides to the bosom of the billowy main, 

Riseth a city all unknown to fame, 

Of recent note, St. Louis is its name. 

Here, sloping from the vast and hurrying bound, 

The shores rise gently, and spread high around ; 

And shady groves adorn the lovely green, 

And Indian mounds o'erlook the varied scene; 

With stately temples and with streets arrayed, 

Sacred to commerce and the rites of trade. 

Twice fourscore souls are gathered here. 

Or people smiling villas near." 

"Hither converge the iron ways of steam. 
The rattling car and fire-projected team; 
From where the sun begins its eastern reign, 
Or bows his forehead to the western main ; 
To bind, in strong embrace, this empire brood 
Of sovereign States, a lasting brotherhood ; 
Or cities join, by quick transition strung 
Like beads of gold, o'er Freedom's bosom hung. 
And freemen smit with admiration join 
In social rites, at Freedom's sacred shrine. 
Now scan the center of her wide domain, 
Now welcome voyagers o'er the flowery plain. 
And test the generous cares to friendship paid 
By patriotic pride, and loftier cares outweighed ; 
Nor fix the measure of our fruitful soil, 
When culture crowns the noble arts of toil." 



47 



Th 
by 


e Mound C 
Kossuth's 


ity Seen 
Friends 



In a suite of a dozen or more persons which accompa- 
nied Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot through the 
United States in 1852, were Francis and Theresa Pulszky. 
They wrote "White, Red, Black." The title page explained 
that the contents of the book were "sketches of society in 
the United States during the visit of their guest." The 
guest was Kossuth. White, Red, Black were the three 
races of people inhabiting America. It is evident that the 
foreigners were alive to all information of entertaining 
character. Somebody in St. Louis supplied a surprising 
story of the founding of the city. Fortunately the tradition 
was not wholly accepted by the visitors. The narrative 
runs: 

"St. Louis, next to New Orleans and Cincinnati, the 
most important of the cities in the Mississippi basin, was 
founded in 1764 by Pierre Laclede, the chairman of a com- 
pany of merchants at New Orleans, to which the governor 
of Louisiana had granted the exclusive privilege of the fur 
trade with the Indians on the Mississippi and the Missouri. 
He went up the Mississippi, intending to raise a fort and 
trading point at the mouth of the Missouri. But, according 
to an anecdote, he fixed it thirteen miles below that point, 
only because the ladies of the party were tired of moving 
about, and would not proceed farther. Cincinnati, too, is 
said to have been laid out on its present site, because the 
officer of the United States forces, posted in Fort Washing- 
ton, fell in love with the wife of a settler, whose house stood 
on the bend of the Ohio. The officer, desiring to live near 
her, transferred the wooden fort higher up the river, where 
it became the nucleus of the city. But whoever examines 
the sites of these great emporiums will easily perceive that 
their romantic traditions are scarcely to be credited ; the 
cities could not be laid out on more favorable points than 
those they really occupy, nor can their sites be accidental." 

Kossuth's reception in St. Louis was enthusiastic. Some 
of the incidents of the visit were sensational : 

"When our boat yesterday arrived at the landing-place 
here in St. Louis, people jumped from the neighboring 

48 



steamboats on our deck, and poured into the state-room in 
such a compact mass, that the captain of the steamer re- 
quested Kossuth to proceed quickly ashore to prevent mis- 
fortune. Mischief had already been done, panes and lamps 
were broken. We pushed our way through the crowd and 
could scarcely escape its pressure by retiring into the next 
storehouse, not without losing the clogs which remained 
sticking in the mud. The city authorities shortly after- 
wards arrived and carried us up in procession to the hotel. 

"Ever since our arrival the rain has been pouring in 
torrents ; yet the people did not like that Kossuth's address 
should be delayed; they met on Tuesday and thousands of 
them were drenched for two hours, while listening to his 
eloquent voice. It was a practical demonstration of sym- 
pathy; so much the more as the Jesuits had exerted all their 
influence to thwart the feeling for Hungary, which mani- 
fests itself in very striking incidents ; a poor clerk came the 
day before yesterday to Kossuth, and left his golden watch 
on the table, as a contribution for European freedom, and 
when Kossuth refused to accept it, the young man declared 
he would take this as an insult. A farmer called, shook 
hands and said: 'Thank you that you allowed me to see 
you. I must return today to my farm, and I was de- 
termined to shake hands with you. I set my very life on 

it, for I am a cruel man. D it! I might have killed 

myself with disappointment. But now I must give you 
something; I have nothing in my pocket but a poor knife, 
but this you must keep as a keepsake of a western farmer.' " 

St. Louis was booming in the early fifties. Of material 
conditions the Hungarians wrote: 

"Shortly after St. Louis had been founded, the country 
was ceded by France to Spain, and under her dominion the 
city hardly increased. There was no public school in the 
whole colony, no regular church ; the villages were some- 
times visited by missionaries ; the currency consisted of 
deerskins. The French Creoles lived here in such an 
isolated and primitive simplicity, that though their honesty 
and hospitality have become proverbial, they could not 
compete with the Yankees, and soon, when under the rule 
of the United States, they were 'improved off,' by sharp 
Tenneseeans and Kentuckians. But even in 1830 the popu- 
lation of St. Louis was but 6,500; in 1850, it had risen 
already to about 100,000. In the last twenty years the 
States of Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa have been rapidly 
filled with an enterprising population, and St. Louis has 

49 



become the market for a back country more extensive than 
that of Cincinnati ; and yet the land between the Missouri 
and Mississippi is but scantily peopled ; the increase of 
the 'Mound City' is therefore likely to continue on the same 
gigantic scale as heretofore. 

"The principal articles of trade in St. Louis are — lumber, 
tobacco, hemp, flour, salt, beef, and pork, whiskey, the lead 
of Illinois, the commodities and manufactures of Europe 
and of the Eastern States. Rich iron deposits have been 
discovered in the State, but as yet their working remains 
unprofitable. The Missourians, therefore, though Demo- 
crats, (in St. Louis the Whigs are in majority), complain 
of the 'free trade tariff,' and wish to have their iron industry 
protected against English competition. There are in St. 
Louis but few manufactories, principally distilleries and 
flour-mills. One of the most important and most promising 
establishments is that for the preparation of the white lead. 
Shipbuilding is also carried on, on an extensive scale. 
Missouri has as yet no railways, but several lines have 
already been surveyed, and the great line to California 
must touch St. Louis, and will add to the importance of the 
city." 

A glimpse of the St. Louis life of the period was given 
to the Hungarians and they described it: 

"Today I visited a large American establishment be- 
longing to Colonel O'Fallon. The place reminded me of 
a Hungarian house; a large solid stone building on a 
hill, in the midst of a park with stately trees, surrounded 
by cottages. But here the likeness ceased ; the inmates 
were black slaves. As far as I saw, they are well fed 
and well clothed. When we arrived at the door a negro 
woman opened it; it was the former nurse of Mrs. Pope, 
the lady who accompanied me, the daughter of the pro- 
prietor. Black Lucy seemed delighted to see her young 
mistress, and brought all her children and grand-children 
to greet her — a numerous band of whoolly haired imps, 
by no means handsome; but Mrs. Pope petted them, and 
genuine affection seemed to exist on both sides." 

"Tomorrow we leave St. Louis. On the whole it has 
left me the pleasant impression of young and expansive 
life." 

One more story must be given before "White, Red, 
Black," is passed: 

"As an instance of the unpractical way of the Creoles, 
and their dealing with the Americans, it is related that 

SO 



a genuine Missourian, who wished to buy a negro from 
a Southern slave-dealer, was told upon inquiry that the 
price was five hundred dollars, and that, according to 
custom, the buyer may have one year's credit upon the 
purchase. The French Missourian become uneasy at this 
proposal ; he was not accustomed to have debts. He there- 
fore said that he would rather pay six hundred dollars 
at once to be done with it, and the southerner obligingly 
accepted the offer." 



51 



St. 


Louis 


to B 


ecome 


a n 


I 


s 1 a 


n d 


C 


i ty 



Delivering an address in 1851, Hudson E. Bridge pic- 
tured the future of St. Louis as an island city: 

"Earnestness is the watchword of the people of St. Louis. 
At the present day especially they will prove themselves 
worthy to be citizens of this goodly city — whose future is 
rich in promise. A bright, enviable destiny awaits it — as 
the time is not distant when from one hundred to two 
hundred millions of our race will find their homes in this 
most fertile valley that a beneficent Being has bestowed upon 
the human race. And when these valleys and plains shall 
resound with the hum of the ceaseless industry of teeming 
millions, what then will be the bounds of our city? May 
she not become an Island City? With the mighty, restless 
Missouri for the northern ; the magnificent Mississippi, as 
now, the eastern; and the pure, limpid, beautiful Meramec, 
the southern border! Situated as St. Louis is in the very 
heart of the valley, and comparatively speaking in the 
center of this continent, may not the time come when the 
pulsations of our commerce shall be felt from Baffin's Bay 
to the Mexican Gulf, and vibrate with equal intensity 
along the shores of the placid Pacific, and from Panama to 
Prince William's Sound?" 

"The ruins of the ancient cities of the valley of the Nile 
excite our wonder and admiration. Yet we are laying 
the foundation of a city, on the banks of the Mississippi, 
that shall excel them in extent, wealth and refinement as 
the Mississippi excels in volume the Nile, or as the Anglo- 
Saxon or Celtic races excel in energy and intellectual great- 
ness the ancient Copts. These hopes may be pronounced 
wild and visionary." 



52 



St. Louis Unappreciative, 
Stephen A. Douglas Said 



Stephen A. Douglas spoke in St. Louis shortly before 
the Civil War. He was a United States Senator from Illi- 
nois, and was soon to receive the Presidential nomination 
from the northern wing of the Democratic party. While 
"The Little Giant" addressed himself chiefly to political 
issues he had something to say about Missouri and St. 
Louis, which warmed the hearts of his hearers with pride: 

"I have said that I am glad to be here in your great 
State, and I am not impolite when I say that you are unap- 
preciative of your powers here at this place. I have con- 
sidered your natural resources; with you nature has been 
more than lavish, she has been profligate. Dear precious 
dame ! Take your southern line of counties, there you 
grow as beautiful cotton as any section of this world; 
traverse your southeastern counties and you meet that 
prodigy in the world of mineralogy, — the Iron Mountain 
married to the Pilot Knob, about the base of each of which 
may be grown any cereal of the States of the great North- 
west, or any one of our broad, outspread Western Terri- 
tories. In your central counties you produce hemp and 
tobacco with these same cereals. Along your eastern bor- 
der traverses the great Father of Waters like a silver belt 
about a maiden's waist. From west to east through your 
northern half the great Missouri pushes her way. In 
every section of your State you have coal, iron, lead, and 
various minerals of the finest quality. Indeed, fellow citi- 
zens, your resources are such that Missourians might arm 
a half million of men and wall themselves within the bor- 
ders of their own State and withstand the siege of all 
the armies of this present world, in gradations of three years 
each between armistices, and never a Missouri soldier 
stretch his hand across that wall for a drink of water!" 



S3 



Seward's Prophecy of 14 
Feet Through the Valley 



Perhaps even more notable than the wonderful summing 
up of possibilities for Missouri by Douglas was the com- 
prehensive appeal of William H. Seward to this State and 
to this city to grasp the opportunities offered. Seward was 
an Eastern man, a New Yorker. He was the chief con- 
testant against Lincoln for the Presidential nomination at 
Chicago in i860. He was an original expansionist in 
theory before he bought Alaska. Addressing a great au- 
dience at St. Louis he said: 

"I see here one State that is capable of assuming the 
great trust of being the middle main, the mediator, the 
common center between the Pacific and the Atlantic — a 
State of vast extent, of unsurpassed fertility, of commercial 
facilities that are given to no other railroad State on the 
Continent; a State that grapples hold upon Mexico and 
Central America on the South, and upon Russia and British 
America on the North ; and through which is the only 
thoroughfare to the Golden Gate of the Pacific. It is your 
interest to bind to Missouri the young States of the Pacific 
of this Continent, while they are yet green and tender, 
and hold them fast to you. When you have done this and 
secured the Pacific States firmly, you will have bound the 
Atlantic to the Pacific Coast, and have guaranteed an em- 
pire such as Alexander failed to conquer, and Bonaparte 
tried in vain to reduce under one common scepter, as his 
predecessor, Charlemagne, had done. And it will be the 
glory of Missouri to see established firmly the empire of 
the Republican Government of America over the entire con- 
tinent of North America. And in saying what I do, I do 
not exclude the region which lies between us and the North 
Pole. And I dare not say where I would draw the line 
on the South." 

Strong words to come from the Atlantic seaboard were 
those uttered by William H. Seward about the Mississippi. 
But Seward was a statesman, as broad as the land: 

"What the Nile is to Egypt, what the great river 
Euphrates was to ancient Assyria, what the Ganges is 
to India, what the Yangste is to China, what the Danube 

54 



is to Europe, what the Amazon is to Brazil, all this, and 
even more than this, the Mississippi river is to the North 
American continent. In an earlier age, men would have 
worshipped the Mississippi ; in this age they can do bet- 
ter, they can improve it." 



55 



An Englishman's Uncom- 
plimentary View and Prophecy 



"A Great Country," embodied the "Impressions of Amer- 
ica," which George Rose published in London in 1868. He 
was not fascinated by much that he saw. "To no one ex- 
cept a commercial traveler would a visit to Chicago prove 
a source of gratification," he wrote. Except for his hotel 
accommodations, which pleased him, he damned St. Louis 
with faint praise: 

"After a long and somewhat monotonous day's journey 
through the mud of the Mississippi, we reached St. Louis 
at nine o'clock in the evening; and glad I was to exchange 
ray floating palace for the Southern hotel, by far the finest 
in the United States, and, in ray opinion, the best. 

"I cannot part with the 'Father of Waters' without ex- 
pressing an opinion that, except for purposes purely cora- 
raercial, DeSoto might as well have kept his discovery 
to himself; but this remark will also apply to Columbus. 

"Beyond having a fine position, and being very ex- 
tensive, St. Louis has nothing especially to recommend it. 
Here all other matters seem completely eclipsed by com- 
merce — the minds of men are wholly absorbed in it. There 
exists a great jealousy of Chicago, and one would think 
that the railway companies were bent on running one 
another off the road by the violence with which they com- 
pete. 

"The courthouse is considered a fine building; it only 
struck me as large. 

"The smoke of the steamers renders a walk along the 
'Levee' very disagreeable and almost useless, as, in conse- 
quence of it, you can see nothing of the river. 

"There is little in St. Louis itself to repay one for the 
trouble of visiting it ; the suburbs are extensive and agree- 
able. 

Upon the title page of his book Rose printed — 
"Sir: This is a Great Country." 

Chorus of Americans. 

He summed up his conclusions on the American people 
in these words: 

"An overweening self-esteem, a conceit without bounds, 
and a total absence of both taste and refinement, are the 
blots on the national character." 



56 



In the opinion of this Englishman there was impending 
just forty years ago an irrepressible conflict between the 
East and the West: 

"That the Western are the coming men is admitted on 
all hands; and now that the South is likely to be crushed 
out, the coming struggle will be between East and West, 
and a desperate one it seems likely to be. 

"Whatever lingering remains of old world chivalry and 
honor were to be traced in the conduct of the South, these 
qualities never have existed in the West, the inhabitants 
of which are as overbearing and self-asserting as the Yankee 
himself. 

"Whenever these two incarnations of Self — the Western 
and Eastern men — shall come into collision, then will hu- 
man nature be seen in its basest colors; then will avarice, 
envy, and hatred, ranked on both sides, meet in a deadly 
conflict, the horrors of which will be unmitigated by either 
fear of God or human respect." 



57 



s 


e e r s 


of 


the 


V 


all 


ey 


a 


nd 


of 


th 


e 


Ci 


ty 



DeTocqueville came to this country in the thirties on a 
special mission of investigation for the French govern- 
ment. He pursued his inquiries far beyond his instructions, 
and returning wrote his famous "Democracy in America." 
DeTocqueville told the world: 

"The Mississippi Valley is, upon the whole, the most 
magnificent dwelling place prepared by God for man's 
abode." 

Charles Sumner, Senator from Massachusetts, among 
the greatest of American Statesmen of the fifties and six- 
ties, was of stature to look over the Alleghanies. He said: 

"The Mississippi Valley speaks for itself as no man can 
speak." 

Wendell Phillips, of Massachusetts, after slavery had 
been abolished, for he was The Apostle of Abolition, wrote 
a letter to a St. Louisian in 1870: 

"If the State of Missouri would back up St. Louis with 
a liberal policy, that would show in the people of the State 
a pride to build up a great city within their own borders, 
St. Louis would soon become the largest interior city on 
this continent and one of the great cities of the world." 



Horace Greeley, the founder of the New York Tribune, 
in 1870 wrote his impression of the future of St. Louis: 

"I have twice seen St. Louis in the middle of winter. 
Nature made her the focus of a vast region, embodying a 
vast area of the most fertile land of the globe. Man will 
soon accomplish her destiny by rendering her the seat of 
an immense industry, the home of the far-reaching, ever- 
expanding commerce. Her gait is not so rapid as that of 
some of her Western sisters, but she advances steadily and 
surely to her predestined station of first inland city of the 
globe." 



58 



The 


P 


r o 


p h e c 


y 


of 


Lacle 


de 


c. 


oming 


Ti 


rue 



More than a third of a century ago, in 1871, James E. 
Yeatman pointed out that the prophecy of Laclede was 
coming true: 

"Laclede seems to have had a prophetic vision of the 
coming greatness of the city which he was locating — it at 
least dawned upon his mind. Could the hand of omnipo- 
tence have drawn aside the veil, so he could have had a 
glimpse of it, with its busy population, its crowded streets 
teeming with life, its miles of storehouses, its palatial resi- 
dences, its foundries and furnaces, its machine shops and 
manufactories, its churches and schoolhouses and colleges ; 
its waters no longer traversed by barges of a few tons bur- 
den, propelled by muscles and sinews of strong men — occu- 
pying many months in making a voyage from New Orleans 
to St. Louis — but by great vessels propelled by steam, car- 
rying vast burdens and moving almost with the speed of 
the wind ; the land traversed by numerous railroads with 
their long trains freighted with human beings and the rich 
products of every clime, arriving and departing each hour, 
contributing to the wealth and growth of the little trading 
post established by him and which he said 'might become 
one of the finest cities of America' ! This seemed no less 
probable to Mons. de Neyon and his officers at Fort de 
Chartres than do the predictions of those now in our midst — 
who tell us that St. Louis is to be not one of the greatest but 
the greatest city on this continent, and the capital of an em- 
pire." 



59 



Ben Butler's Vision of 
"The Very First City" 



Benjamin F. Butler, general in the Union army, member 
of Congress, Governor of Massachusetts, was in St. Louis 
a few years after the war. In the course of his speech he 
said: 

"I also remember that I am in the city of St. Louis — 
destined, ere long, to be the great city on the continent; the 
greatest central point between the East and the West, at 
once destined to be the entrepot and depot of all the internal 
commerce of the greatest and most prosperous country the 
world has ever seen ; connected soon with India by the 
Pacific, and receiving the goods of China and Japan; drain- 
ing, with its immense rivers centering here, the great North- 
west, and opening into the Gulf, through the great river 
of this nation, the Father of Waters — the Mississippi. 
Whenever — and that time is not far distant — the internal 
commerce shall excel our foreign commerce, then shall St. 
Louis take the very first rank among the cities of the nation. 
And that time, my friends, is much sooner than any one 
of us actually realizes. Suppose that it had been told to 
5-ou — any one of )'cu here present, of middle age, within 
twenty years past, that within that time such a city would 
grow up here, with such a population as covers the teeming 
prairies of Illinois and Indiana, between this and the Ohio, 
who would have realized this prediction ? And so the next 
quarter of a century shall see a larger population west of 
the Mississippi than the last quarter of a century saw east 
of the Mississippi and the city of St. Louis, from its central 
location, and through the vigor, the energy, the industry, 
and enterprise of its inhabitants, shall become the very first 
city of the United States of America, now and hereafter 
destined to be the great Republican nation of the world." 



60 



St. Louis a Metropolis of 
Comprehensive Activities 



A correspondent of the New York Times spent some 
weeks in the West in the early seventies making a study of 
cities. From St. Louis he wrote his conclusions and his 
reasons for them : 

"No one who desires to understand the whole subject 
of his country's future should fail to seek the metropolitan 
center of that country. The question which puzzles the 
people, and even the newspapers of late, is this: 'Where 
is the Paris, the London, or the Jerusalem of the nation?' 
I know New York has yet the clearest title to that claim, 
but of late St. Louis has spoken much and often in her own 
behalf — with what truthfulness I propose to examine. Chi- 
cago has been heard, Cincinnati puts in her voice, Phila- 
delphia prides herself upon her strength and beauty, Boston 
calls herself the hub, and others put in their claims. Now, 
next to New York, I am disposed to regard the claim of St. 
Louis. Before slavery died this claim was not worth 
much, but that dead weight is now removed. Standing 
here, then, in St. Louis, an Eastern man, I cannot resist 
the impression that I am in the future commercial, if not 
political, metropolis of the land. A thousand voices con- 
spire to enforce this impression upon the not very prophetic 
mind. I v/ould make no invidious flings at the cheek of 
Chicago, the conceit of Boston, the cool silence of a New 
Yorker, as he points to a forest of masts and a million of 
people, the nonchalant airs of the city of Brotherly Love, 
and the peculiar habits of Cincinnati. Chicago has the 
railroads, she says. Granted. A metropolis of railroads, 
without a river, deep, pure and broad enough to afford 
drink to her present population, suggests the idea that rail- 
roads cannot make a city. Fitchburg, in Massachusetts, 
has more railroads than any New England town. What 
does that bring her, save the name of being Fitchburg? 
Shipping alone, which you have in New York, cannot make 
a city. Philadelphia may keep on annexing every town in 
Pennsylvania, and Jersey, too, and that cannot make a 
metropolis. The pork trade flourishes in Cincinnati, but 
even so respectable a constituency as a gentlemanly porker, 

61 



who loves luxury, lives on the fat of the land, and is other- 
wise excessively aristocratic, cannot make a metropolis. In 
fact no great cosmopolitan center can be made out of one 
specialty. Manchester is greater than London, in its special- 
ty, but Manchester's specialty must always keep it con- 
strained, and prevent its ever becoming a center. Cologne, 
with 'seventy-nine well-defined, distinct, and separate' per- 
fumes, has made it the city of odors, but Cologne can never 
be a capital. Shoes make and kill Lynn at once. Chicago 
is a depot for speculators in grain, and Cincinnati abounds 
in hogs, but this is the end of their glory. New York and 
St. Louis are alike in this: You will find every specialty 
in about equal proportion. St. Louis needs only one thing 
to make it to the West what New York is to the East — 
railroads. She is not even an inland city. Light-draft 
sailing vessels can sail from St. Louis to London. All that 
she further needs is age. Up to 1866, capital was slow to 
venture and settle down in this city. Save a few thrifty 
Germans, the population was southern. This was her 
condition up to this time, so that she is practically, a city 
of only ten years' growth." 



62 



A Philosophical View 
of St. Louis People 



A philosophical view of the composite population of 
St. Louis and its surrounding territory, was presented in 
1875 by Judge Nathaniel Holmes: 

"It is the remarkable fact that the several successive 
streams of westward migration of the white Aryan race 
from the primitive Paradise, in the neighborhood of the 
primeval cities of Sogd and Balkh, in high Asia, long 
separated in times of migration, and for the most part 
distinct in the European areas finally occupied by them, 
and which, in the course of its grand march of twenty 
thousand years or more, has created nearly the whole of 
the civilization, arts, sciences and literature of this globe, 
buildings seats of fixed hibitation and great cities, succes- 
sively, in the rich valleys of the Ganges, the Tiber and the 
Po, the Danube, the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Seine and 
Thames, wandering children of the same great family 
are now, in these latter times, brought together again in 
their descendants and representatives, Semitic, Pelasgic, 
Celtic, Teutonic and Slavonic, here in the newly dis- 
covered common land of promise, and are commingled 
(especially in this great Valley of the Mississippi), into 
one common brotherhood of race, language, law and lib- 
erty." 



63 



Ih 


e 


M 


o r 


a 


1 


Fi 


b 


r 


e 


of 


S 


t . 


L 


o 


u 


i s 


a 


n 


s 



L. U. Reavis wrote much about St. Louis and St. 
Louisans. One of the most noteworthy productions of his 
pen was his tribute in 1881 to the moral fibre of the popu- 
lation, tracing its evolution from the days of the fur trapper: 

"An allusion to an incident in the history of the city 
may be permitted which illustrates the texture of those 
elements of character derived from the crude looms of 
the early settlers of the trappers' village. In 1849 St. 
Louis was visited with the triple furies of fire, flood and 
pestilence. The best portions of her business locations were 
reduced to ashes; five thousand of her people died with a 
disease that bid defiance to medical skill; her rivers rose 
and flooded her productive bottom lands. Ruin stalked 
through her streets and pervaded the country tributary to 
her commercial support. At this trying moment, with that 
self-reliant and indomitable will, which carried her found- 
ers safely through the ordeals to which they were exposed, 
she met the responsibilities of the trial with an independ- 
ent spirit, a prowess of resistence and recuperative ener- 
gies of the highest type. Honorable as it is to our nature 
that sympathy finds a lodgment not alone in individual 
bosoms, but in communities and nations, our citizens asked 
no aid from this benevolent feeling to meet the exigencies 
of the hour. Not a dollar was received or asked from con- 
tiguous or distant cities. The bravery and self-reliant 
characteristics of the trapper shone out in the artisan, mer- 
chant and professional man of the present, and an immedi- 
ate effort was put in requisition to redeem losses and re- 
pair devastations. Such an exhibition of unconquerable 
will, of Inherent strength. Is surely a forcible prognostic, 
a grand prophecy of the ultimate destiny of our beloved 
metropolis." 



64 



How the Population of 
St. Louis Was Formed 



Scharff, an Eastern author of standing as a historian, 
twenty-five years ago pointed out in a striking manner the 
convergence of the early explorations and of the later migra- 
tions in the vicinity of St. Louis: 

"The French who went west from Quebec to Lake Su- 
perior, those who descended the Wabash, the Illinois, the 
Kaskaskia and the Mississippi, and those who ascended the 
latter stream from the Balize, all met and settled within 
forty or fifty miles of the city whose history we are writing, 
and the oldest settlement, Cahokia, is within sight of its 
tallest spires. So likewise the three chief lines of English 
settlement from New England across western New York 
to the lakes, from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia 
westward to the Ohio, and from Virginia, and the Carolinas 
to Tennessee and Kentucky, all converged at St. Louis. It 
is rather more than a coincidence that Coronado and DeSoto, 
the one starting on the Pacific coast and the other on the 
Atlantic, would actually have crossed paths if they had 
projected their outward marches two hundred miles farther, 
and their meeting point would have been very near the site 
of St. Louis. It is rather more of a coincidence, likewise, 
that the road of the trading pack and wagon of the New 
England emigrant, the path of the Virginia ranger and 
Kentucky hunter, the devious way of the Canadian coureur 
des bois and voyageur and the route of the trapper should, 
all of them, have led to St. Louis. In the ante-chamber of 
the representative of the French ancient regime, or the 
Spanish hidalgo who might chance to be 'commandant' at 
old St. Louis, but in no other place on this continent, it 
would have been natural for Daniel Boone, 'backwoodsman 
of Kentucky,' to meet and exchange adventures with the 
Yankee peddler from Connecticut, the Jesuit priest from 
Minnesota, the Canadian half-breed trapper from the head 
waters of the Missouri, and the sugar planter of Opelousas 
and Terrebonne. 

"So races and nationalities confront one another today 
in St. Louis, and so likewise, in the remotest past of Ameri- 
ca's connection with historic periods, we find that con- 

65 '- ••• 



vergence of races and nationalities toward the central point 
of the great Mississippi basin, which was to eventuate in 
the founding of St. Louis and its establishment as the key- 
city of the mightiest river system upon the globe." 



66 



1 h 


e R e V i 


e w 


of 


Imp 


rovements 


in 


1881 



It is not uninteresting to read what St. Louisans of 1881 
considered worthy of local pride. The Review of Improve- 
ments published that year summed up the progress of the 
city: 

"Since 1875, notwithstanding the period of depression, 
and the slow revival of prosperity, there has been a con- 
siderable amount of building every year, and this year it 
is unusually large. Among the larger erections to be 
noted are the Union Depot and the new Pacific railroad 
depot on Seventh street, at least three grain elevators, two 
large tobacco manufactories, two cotton compress ware- 
houses and a stately Cotton Exchange, a Real Estate Ex- 
change, a Bessemer steel works, and the South St. Louis 
iron furnaces set in blast again, a new barge line to New 
Orleans capable of carrying 10,000 tons of freight at one 
haul and in five days' time, the Southern hotel rebuilt 
(fireproof), and the Planters House remodelled and raised 
two stories, one large theatre built, another building, and 
a third in progress to be hatched and born, several new 
churches, the Smith Academy, the Harrison manual train- 
ing school, and the Crow Museum of Art added to Wash- 
ington University, the new United States custom house and 
post office nearing completion and a United States assay 
office and mint provided for; and the Jefferson avenue 
bridge built; the parks have been improved, and a new 
street railroad chartered to Benton park and South St. 
Louis, and sundry elevated railroads are in the air. The 
street railroads have been greatly extended, numerous 
palatial blocks of mercantile houses have been erected on 
Fifth, Sixth and Olive streets, Washington avenue and 
elsewhere, at once an ornament to the city and a witness 
of its unchecked progress. Looking at the changes on 
Washington avenue, in the last five years, one who remem- 
bers back to the time when Main street was the ladies' 
promenade, and 'Quality Row' extended on Chestnut street 
from Main to Second, or when Market street became the 
fashionable walk, until after the great fire of 1849 it was 
transferred to Fourth street, may venture to predict that 

67 



the Broadway of St. Louis will soon stretch westward from 
Fourth to the University on the hill, if indeed it should ever 
stop or shift again short of Grand avenue or the King's 
Highway." 



68 



1 he 


Cosmo 


poll 


tan 


A i r 


of 


St. 


Lo 


u i s 



Julian Ralph, in Harper's Monthly, 1892, attributed to 
St. Louis the distinctive trait of cosmopolitan character: 

"St. Louis is the one large Western city in which a man 
from our Eastern cities would feel at once at home. It 
seems to require no more explanation than Boston would 
to a New Yorker, or Baltimore to a Bostonian. It speaks 
for itself in a familiar language of street scenes, architec- 
ture, and the faces and manners of the people. In saying 
this I make no comparison that is unfavorable to the other 
Western cities, for it is not unfriendly to say that their 
most striking characteristic is their newness, or that this is 
lacking in St. Louis." 



69 



McKinley, Reed and 
Rothschild on St. Louis 



When he was Governor of Ohio, in 1894, William Mc- 
Kinley visited the city. The country was slowly recover- 
ing from the depression of 1893. St. Louis had given other 
cities one more evidence of her marvelous power of re- 
cuperation : 

"I congratulate your city on the splendid way in which 
she met the financial reverses of last year. Resting as 
they do upon conservative principles and business integrity, 
your mercantile and financial institutions have survived 
as those of few of our cities did." 



The same year, 1894, Thomas B. Reed, Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, addressed a meeting in the Mer- 
chants Exchange: 

"I suppose it is superfluous for me to tell you about the 
great resources of St. Louis, about its being the biggest 
tobacco market and a great shoe manufactory and your 
splendid horse car railroads. I am afraid you have got 
that already printed in books of your own. But I will 
sav, and my conscience will permit me to say it, that you 
have got not only a big city, but a stately and noble city, 
in which you have every right to be proud." 



Baron Rothschild, in 1895, discussed the most attractive 
fields for investment of European capital. He addressed 
a letter on the subject to a high official of Great Britain. 
In this letter he defined three great opportunities as he saw 
them at that time: 

"The third region of wealth production is around St. 
Louis. The soil of all the surrounding States, the coal 
fields of Illinois and Missouri, the iron and other minerals 
of Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, the great forest 
wealth and the great waterways are the principal factors." 



70 



I'he 


Sub 


urb 


an 


B 


eau- 


ties 


of 


St. 


L 


o 


u i s 



In the National Magazine, Edmund S. Hoch, dwelt upon 
the very attractive suburbs of the city, suggesting the exist- 
ence of natural conditions which the average St. Louisan 
seldom takes into account: 

"You may get on a car in the throbbing heart of St. 
Louis and ride twenty miles straight, and far out and away 
from the noise and bustle of the city. This by almost a 
dozen different lines, in as many separate directions. Out 
to lakes, rivers, country places and clubs, suburban re- 
sorts, etc. ; through the rich, fresh, real country ! And such 
a country ! Those who have never seen Missouri, who 
have ridden in trolley cars over the flats from Buffalo to 
Niagara, from New York to Coney Island or from Chicago 
to Waukegan or Joliet, know nothing of what it means to 
speed through the country about St. Louis, over the various 
splendid electric routes which radiate there. Across the 
rich, high ridges, the fresh, airy cars of these lines whirl 
you, into the fertile valleys, by field and stream, orchard 
and vineyard, farmyard and meadow — through thickest 
forest and across deep ravine. Swiftly and far you glide, 
an occasional glimpse of church steeples and villages ris- 
ing in the hills, while long vistas of blue, misty ridges 
hover close under the horizon far in the distance; the fresh 
breath of the countryside — the rich, sweet, dew-steeped 
countryside — in your nostrils, and constantly fanning your 
cheek ! 

"What an asset such country lines and rides are to a 
city ! What a godsend to the poor ! What a delight, what 
wealth for every citizen! The trips out of Washington 
to Cabin John Bridge, and through upper New York to 
Fort George, remind me a little of these St. Louis country 
journeys, but only a verj' little. If this western city were 
possessed of no other attraction, such direct connection with 
the woods, with field, orchard and meadow, lake and 
stream, must appeal strongly to every wholesome, healthy 
man." 



71 



Ch 
o n 


a u n c e y 
Ch a ng 


M. Depew 
e In 1896 



Chauncey M. Depew, Senator from New York and head 
of the New York delegation in the convention which nomi- 
nated McKinley at St. Louis in 1896, spoke to business men 
on 'change. What he said about the theory of city gov- 
ernment of St. Louis was especially interesting: 

"I am delighted to meet with you here in St. Louis. It 
is many years since I had the pleasure of meeting you on 
a public occasion. I am delighted to find in studying your 
local affairs that you have the best city government accord- 
ing to an authority on that subject, Dr. Shaw, that there 
is anywhere in the United States. That city government 
has come from having devolved upon your best citizens the 
formation of a charter for themselves. It solves the problem 
of municipal government that leaves the people of any 
locality to themselves, and intelligence and integrity will 
govern that municipality. 

In the people of St. Louis Senator Depew found the 
perfected type of Americanism : 

"I count it a fortunate event that the Republican Na- 
tional Convention is held in the city of St. Louis. It is 
fortunate that this party organized on lines which thirty- 
five years ago were so full of passionate resentment is hold- 
ing its quadrennial meeting for the nomination of its candi- 
dates and for the enunciation of its principles in the princi- 
pal city of what was formerly a slave State, of what was 
formerly a border State, in the midst of a territory, where a 
generation before the people were at each other's throats 
upon the existence of the Union. It demonstrates as nothing 
else could to the country and to the world that the United 
States are now one nation and one people." 

The Senator from New York, cosmopolitan that he was, 
noted what so many other visitors to St. Louis have com- 
mented upon, the existence of a spirit of hospitality with no 
false ring in it: 

"No community ever did so much to make the visiting 
delegations of the country happy nad comfortable. There 
has been no politics in this reception. You simply wanted 
to know the men without regard to politics all over the 
country, and that they should know you. No host ever 
did so much for guests as you have done." 

72 



Senator Tillman in the 
Heart of the Country 



During the campaign year of 1896, Senator Benjamin R. 
Tillman, of South Carolina, was in St. Louis. Aggressive 
of speech, tenacious of his record as a commoner, the 
Senator, in a brief speech to the Merchants Exchange, said 
some good and true things of St. Louis: 

"On this tour I have flown around the circle. I have 
gone over the western rim. I have seen the Rocky Moun- 
tains. I have traveled over part of the Great American 
Desert. I have looked at the great farm lands of Ne- 
braska, Kansas and Missouri. And today I can under- 
stand more readily than ever before why you people want 
to remove the capital of the country to St. Louis. You are 
in the heart of the country and if we were starting afresh 
in housekeeping I expect you would put up a pretty good 
fight to move Uncle Sam over here. 

"Your magnificent river flowing southward gives you 
advantages in a commercial way that few cities have. 
Here at the junction of three great rivers — the Mississippi, 
the Missouri and practically the Ohio, you are given facili- 
ties in competition with the railroads which make your 
freight rates more reasonable than they would be otherwise. 

"I had the pleasure of driving over your city yesterday 
and notwithstanding the hard times upon which I am to 
talk tonight I saw a great many evidences of wealth and 
progress. The number of buildings going up rapidly in 
all parts of the city indicate that some of you have not got 
any hard times, no matter how the balance of us are." 



73 



The Vice-President of 

Mexico Offers Reciprocity 



Ignacio Mariscal, Vice-President of Mexico in 1899, at 
the time of his visit to St. Louis in 1899, courted the closest 
possible relations between his country and this city: 

"The city of St. Louis, in the United States, is one of 
the most enterprising, and is destined to be, in the near 
future, one of the most important for our country. It is 
not only the nearest of the great centers of trade and indus- 
try, but its wonderful enterprise compares favorably with 
any city of the world. You have shown the greatest interest 
for the promotion of commence with our country. You 
had a chamber of commerce especially to promote trade 
with us. And now you have a Latin-American club more 
particularly destined to carry out that purpose. 

"All these efforts deserve to be crowned with success and 
undoubtedly will be. We Mexicans will reciprocate and 
the intercourse between the two people will serve not only 
for the purpose of a better knowledge of the people for 
each other but to dispel any prejudice which might prevail 
to the detriment of our better understanding. The two 
republics of North America without any political connection 
will act as two sisters, two intimate friends, two natural 
allies." 



74 



Roosevelt, David B. Hill 
and Count Apponyi 



Theodore Roosevelt, in the campaign of 19(30, when he 
was a candidate for Vice-President, visited St. Louis. In 
his own original way he spoke to the business men on 
'change of the impression the city made upon him: 

"There is always one feature that is peculiarly presented 
to me coming to a city like St. Louis, which has in it among 
its citizens so many of the men who wore the blue and of 
those who wore the gray, and of their sons." 



David Bennett Hill, former Governor of New York, 
stopped here when he came out to attend the Democratic 
convention at Kansas City, in 1900. He gave the Merchants 
Exchange the impression St. Louis made upon him: 

"This is my first visit to St. Louis, and as I was driven 
through your streets I was surprised by the largeness of 
this western country, your beautiful streets, great Union 
Station, parks, residences, hotels, and business buildings. 
Everything is on a grand scale. 

"I am grateful that I am permitted to meet the business 
men of St. Louis face to face as I greatly admire your 
energy, enterprise and conservatism. Upon your faithful- 
ness, loyalty and conservatism much depends for the future 
progress, prosperity and perpetuation of the grand institu- 
tions of our country." 



Count von Apponyi, a deputy of Hungary, was one of 
the vice-presidents of the Peace Congress held in St. Louis 
during the World's Fair. An assertion which he made to 
the committee of the Business Men's League, while being 
escorted about the city, seemed almost extravagant. It was 
the subject of inquiry afterwards and was sustained by 
others who have traveled widely: 

"You have more beautiful residences in the aggregate 
in St. Louis than all of the handsome residences in Conti- 
nental Europe." 



75 



Number and Beauty of 
St. Louis Homes 



The National Magazine, of 1903, gave St. Louis the first 
place among American cities for the beauty of its homes: 

"It is a fact that St. Louis has more beautiful homes than 
any city in the world ; I may say, further, and the fact may 
be proved, that St. Louis has more beautiful homes than 
any two cities in the world ; indeed, any three cities might 
be selected and introduced into the comparison, and St. 
Louis would, I believe, meet and surpass them all in the 
competition. Many of these homes are palaces — scores of 
them are, in fact — veritable palaces in every particular of 
richness, appointment and setting — even in size. 

"The populations of New York and Chicago have, and 
can have, no conception of the richness and beauty of the 
Missouri metropolis' homes, for they have nothing at hand 
with which to make a comparison. 

"In St. Louis, for blocks and blocks, the eye is met with 
splendid mansions set in spacious grounds — each a com- 
plete and satisfying entity — each surrounded by stretching 
green lawns, fresh and sparkling under the industrious 
hose, diversified and enriched by luxuriant shrubs, flowers 
and trees. The continuation of such a neighborhood for 
miles creates an atmosphere, a setting for a mansion — for 
each mansion in such a section — that cannot possibly attach 
to an isolated house and grounds, found set between a va- 
cant, desolate block on one side, and a solid row of frown- 
ing. Irregularly placed houses on the other. St. Louis has 
planned for its homes — especially its palace homes — planned 
with a result in effect that is marvelous — that is inconceiva- 
ble by those who live away from that city." 



76 



An English Engineer 
at the World's Fair 



Emerson Bainbridge, an eminent engineer of Great 
Britain, visited the United States in 1904. He spent some 
time in St. Louis. He investigated business methods as well 
as conditions. He looked into the industries of St. Louis. 
Upon his return to England, Bainbridge published his 
"Notes," and put upon the title page, "for private circula- 
tion." Some portion of his stay in St. Louis, the engineer 
gave to the Exposition, of which he wrote "it is impossible 
to speak too highly." He added this comment: "To the 
ordinary observer, one of the most striking things in the 
St. Louis World's Fair is the good order observed by every- 
body." After giving in considerable detail the result of 
his investigation of business methods in St. Louis, Mr. 
Bainbridge adds this "Note:" 

"In looking for reasons for the quick manner in which 
the United States build up successful enterprises, one cannot 
overlook one element of vitality which appears to constitute 
a very important factor, viz., the manner in which the young 
women of the lower middle and working classes give their 
lives to business work. For instance, there is no compari- 
son between the appearance of English cities at midday, 
and that of a city like St. Louis. In the neighborhood of 
the banks and brokers' offices, the streets are filled with 
many hundreds of trim, neatly dressed, superior looking 
young women, all with an air of business, either going to 
or from their lunch or their business houses. There is no 
doubt that this class is doing much more active commercial 
work in America than in Great Britain." 



77 



Ambassador Bryce and 
James J. Hill in Prophecies 



James Bryce, the author of "The American Common- 
wealth," and the British Ambassador to the United States, 
returning in 1907 from a tour of the Southwest, spoke to 
the Commercial Club of St. Louis the conclusion his mind 
had reached: 

"St. Louis is the natural center of the vast fertile terri- 
tory of the Southwest, and with her natural advantages 
must inevitably become the most important metropolis of 
this country." 

In November, 1907, James J. Hill, the great railroad 
builder of the Northwest, gave out in New York City this 
expression of present needs and this forecast of future de- 
velopment: 

"New York has reached the climax of her commercial 
supremacy. No city can maintain its control when its chief 
claim is that it is the dearest place in which to do business. 
The cost of everything relating tb trade and commerce has 
increased here beyond the point of profit. Traffic will be 
forced to seek other outlets ; business other locations. To 
many points of the West, St. Louis is as convenient and as 
easily reached as Chicago. From there to New Orleans 
is the Mississippi. Down the river now they float flatboats, 
unwieldy, awkward and inadequate. You see steamers 
convoying tows of these old-time 'broadhorns' carrying car- 
goes too small to be profitable. Can you imagine the effect 
of fleets of modern steel barges carrying thousands of 
bushels of grain running down a fourteen-foot channel to 
the Mississippi? 

"The internal growth of the United States in popula- 
tion, in manufactures, in agricultural products is unpar- 
alleled. In twenty-five years, in the country west of the 
Mississippi, an immense nation has sprung into existence, 
a dozen States have been added to the Union. It has yielded 
each year an immense addition to the country's wealth. 
Yet in that same length of time, how many new trunk lines 
of railroad have been built between the Mississippi and 
the Atlantic? A number of little local lines you may name, 
but not one main artery of traffic is there which did not 
exist twenty-five years ago." 

78 



One Hundred Years— 
St. Louis, by Wm.V. By ars 



What constitutes the city? More than population; more 
than commerce; more than weakh; more than intelligence 
and refinement. The building of St. Louis is praiseworthy 
and gratifying. The lifting of St. Louis by St. Louisans is 
the higher destiny. In his "One Hundred Years — St. 
Louis," William Vincent Byars wrote: 

"A flag was raised as a flag slipped lower 
In the village street in the sight of the stream, 
While a century passed, like a dim, vast dream 
When the rising sun still lacks the power 
To rouse the sleeper who stirs at the gleam 
Of the first straight ray as it quickens and thrills 
His sleep with the life of the morning hour 
Ere the ghosts of the darkness, which mutter and peep 
In the soul of a man or a world asleep, 
Fall back to the void where they gibber and cower 
Lest light should pierce them with might that kills. 

"A flag slipped low with a sound of sighing 
That sobbed from the souls of the lovers of Spain, 
For a dream of the night that was dreamed in vain, 
For a century lost, for an empire dying. 
As a new day yawned with a new flag flying 
And a new hope born as the old hope passed 
To the limbo, made for the hopes whose lying, 
That filled a world of oppression with tears. 
Is spurned by the feet of the new-born years 
Till it falls in the bottomless pit whose crying 
Proclaims that justice is done at last! 

"We have felt the earth as it reeled, sore-shaken ; 
We have seen waste fields where our blood ran red ; 
We have looked on the land as it wailed for its dead; 
We have grieved for a hope that, if once forsaken, 
Gave the world to judgment with all hope sped ; 
Yet we clave to the hope though we paid the cost. 
And we stand today with a fresh strength taken ; 
With the flag for judgment on things to be. 
With a threat in each star that if our decree 
Cheats the earth of the hope that its red stripes waken 
And we turn backward, the world is lost." 

79 



1 lyob 



